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Yet in all my memories of these travels, the night we stayed in a parador in Spain still stands out. My father had been promising a night in a real live castle, and there it was, with turrets and a courtyard, dimly lighted passageways and rooms filled with antiques. I was awed — not because it was bigger or better than other castles I had seen, but because I could actually go to bed and wake up in this one.

Spain, I learned from my father, had been restoring historic buildings and turning them into luxury hotels for decades, an ingenious idea that helped preserve all kinds of failing structures while generating income in some of the country's more remote corners. Today, there are 93 government-owned sites as part of the chain Paradores de Turismo de España, most of them in ancient monasteries, medieval castles and Moorish forts. Each is unique. Many of them are jaw-dropping.

But they are also in trouble. Last year, Paradores posted losses of about 28 million euros on top of a 105-million-euro debt. The government, which is struggling with a broad economic crisis, announced recently that it wanted to close 7 paradors completely and more than 25 for at least four months a year. In the face of union resistance and popular dismay, however, it quickly backed down on much, though not all, of this plan. Spaniards are proud of their paradors — and are some of their most loyal customers.

But whether the network will survive remains an open question. For the most part, the paradors get high marks for service and food. And the hotels are in pristine condition, too. Their problems are related to management and staying alive in tough competitive times. Tourism is one of the few industries in Spain that did well last year, benefiting from the turmoil in the wake of the Arab Spring. But the paradors, many experts say, have been slow to catch on to Internet booking systems and indifferent to the need to play nice with tour operators. They have not been paying much attention to a growing number of competitors in the private sector taking over old buildings either.

"You have to adapt," said Ramón Estalella, the secretary general of the Confederation of Spanish Hotels and Tourist Accommodations, commonly known as Cehat. "The problem with the paradors is that they have not adapted to the market, to the ways of the tourism industry today. They need a changing mentality."

Mr. Estalella says that the chain, too often run by politicians, not industry experts, became complacent about the need to attract new and international clients, instead relying on a high percentage of Spanish clients, who right now have no discretionary money and are doing little vacationing. When opening new paradors, he said, the government also invested poorly in recent years, in areas where there was too little interest. As a government enterprise, the paradors also have a bulky and inflexible staff, he said. As government workers, they expect to be employed for life.

"If you have 12 people eating in the dining room," Mr. Estalella said, "do you need 15 people in the kitchen? A private chain would adapt to the off-season numbers, cut back on staff or close for a time. But the paradors have not been doing that. They have been paying 200 people to work full time on union business alone."

Ángeles Alarcó Canosa, who was recently appointed to manage the paradors, largely agrees with this analysis. To save about 20 million euros this year, she will lay off 350 employees among other austerity measures, and close one parador permanently and 24 paradors on a seasonal basis. She is also hoping to generate new business by developing a range of strategies to market the paradors in a more modern way, including offering packages that blend hotel stays with bicycling tours and regional cooking classes, for example.