Three Pestana hotels with stunning exteriors, these are special places where architecture, art and history highlight the beauty of nature. Give them a visit if you can.
When it comes to the Pestana Hotel Group, a hotel is much more than just a hotel, especially when we’re talking about some of the country’s most remarkable garden architecture.
Let’s start in the north of Portugal with the Pestana Palácio do Freixo, a hotel on the Douro River, as well as a national monument. This accolade includes its gardens, which are a fine example of Baroque style. The artist who created such perfection was none other than Nicolau Nasoni, the Italian architect responsible for the iconic Clérigos Tower and making Baroque style popular in Porto in the first half of the 18th century. Originally known as Quinta do Freixo, the spot is now a five-star hotel, boasting one of the greatest examples of Nasoni’s art.
So, what makes this garden special? It’s a classic Baroque garden, with pathways geometrically defined by a central axis and different boulevards, not to mention plenty of decoration and dramatism. In the original garden, there was a number of water features, statues and carved stone simulating baskets of fruit, for example.
All this with a scenic connection to the Douro, which endures, one is the other’s scenic backdrop (i.e. from one you can admire the other). The infinity pool overlooking the Douro currently featured by the Pestana Palácio do Freixo has is one of the best spots to enjoy this happy marriage between the garden and river.
The original property was linked to a wood, setting the garden among green surroundings – a common feature in noble gardens in Northern Portugal at the time. Today, the garden covers 10,000 square metres, with a number of terraces and levels fashioned by the architect, downhill to the Douro or uphill to the magnificent palace.
Highlights
Staying in the north, there’s another garden with older origins that continues to combine features and vestiges from different eras. The Pousada Mosteiro de Guimarães, which is run as a hotel in Guimarães, is located on the site of the Santa Marinha da Costa Monastery, which originates from the 12th century. It has one of the finest views of Guimarães’s historic centre, as well as the peace and quiet of the surrounding nature.
Anyone walking around the nine hectares of this historic garden, with its chestnuts and oaks, it’s easy to imagine monks meditating here in the 12th century. At the time, there was already a wood in the enclosure (the walled garden surrounding the monastery) with these types of trees. Next to the circular granite pond, which is one of the garden’s most iconic features, there’s an ancient oak tree.
After being exclusively reserved for the monastery during many years, the 19th century brought with it the extinction of religious orders and individuals acquiring the property. The garden no longer included the orchards and vegetable gardens, once tended by the monks and canons. It became a very romantic and bucolic recreational garden in the style of the time, including exotic and ornamental trees, as well as an artificial grotto.
Despite a fire in 1951, the park has remained a place of public interest (since 1940) and, having been restored, it has been possible to maintain all the layers of history and nature, whether indigenous – sycamores, laurels and holly trees – or exotic species, such as Buçaco cypress (Mexico), the Atlas cedar (North Africa), the Virginia tulip tree or the Sequoia (North America).
Further south, there’s a five-star hotel in Lisbon, where visitors can meander among exotic trees. The Pestana Palace Lisboa is classified as a national monument and the garden of old trees is one of the reasons why.
Dating back to the late-19th century, this palace is full of history. It was built by the Marquis of Valle-Flôr, José Luís Constantino Dias, who had made his fortune in São Tomé in the cocoa and coffee businesses. Around this family home, he commissioned a small oasis that remains majestic. There are a thousand exotic species, as well as different statues representing the seasons and, opposite the building’s main façade, a French-style garden inspired by Versailles.
In the Pestana Palace Lisboa garden, the old lake has been turned into the hotel’s outdoor swimming pool, which is a perfect fit for the atmosphere: noble and elegant, that extols the exuberance of nature.
