Bela Vista Hotel - Portimao, Algarve

Address:

Av.tomas Cabreira Praia Da Rocha, Portugal

Description:

With total respect for the glamour of the turn of the century, Bela Vista Hotel maintains much of its original decoration, including, in some rooms and common areas, 17th and 18th century tiles, signed by Victoria P., and ceilings of precious Brazilian wood, worked and painted by Pereira CE;o. The tiles, furthermore, tell the history of the golden age of the Portuguese Discoveries, excerpts from "Os LusEeadas" (epic work of the great Portuguese poet LuEes Vaz de CamE'es) and of the Arab occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. Built as the private residence of a wealthy family, MagalhE;es Barros, it was later leased to a cousin, Henrique Bivar de Vasconcelos, who transformed it into a hotel in the 1930s, at a time when the first intrepid tourists discovered the Algarve and managed to arrive at Praia da Rocha by boat. The hotel preserves its history and its treasures from a glorious past, and with its simplicity, friendliness and dedicated staff, you are sure to feel as if you were visiting friends and family with none of the impersonal atmosphere of the large cosmopolitan hotels. One of the most outstanding periods of Bela Vista is the 40s decade, the years of World War II. Portugal, being politically neutral, worked as a place for the exchange, crossing of information. The hotel, thanks to the comfort, isolation and self-sufficiency that it could offer during those times, served as a privileged and adequate local for the meeting of spies, secret agents and "postmen", who knew the hotel's location by the sea.