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Pestana Cidadela Cascais, Pousada & Art District
Cascais, Portugal · Pestana · Accessible Luxury
You sleep inside a working fortress. The Cascais citadel started as a tower ordered by King Joao II in 1488 to cover the mouth of the Tagus, grew a triangular Spanish-built fort around it, and was still being reinforced in the seventeenth century. Goncalo Byrne and David Sinclair spent eighteen months and twenty million euros turning the barracks and parade grounds into a Pousada, which opened in March 2012 around two old squares. Two years later came the art district: galleries, open studios, rooms signed by artists, inside the walls.
- 133 rooms
- Opened 2012
- Neighborhood: Cascais centre / Citadel
- Architect: Goncalo Byrne and David Sinclair (2012 conversion)
About Pestana Cidadela Cascais, Pousada & Art District
- The first tower went up in 1488 under King Joao II. A triangular fortress, Nossa Senhora da Luz, was added under Spanish rule, and the walls were still being strengthened after 1641.
- Portugal's first electric lighting was tried here in 1878, when King Luis ordered six lamps from Paris and had them set on the ramparts for his son's fifteenth birthday.
- The royal family summered in the adjoining Citadel Palace every September and October until the regicide of 1908, which is how Cascais became the seaside address of Lisbon society.
- The 2014 Cidadela Art District put six galleries, open studios and artist-designed rooms inside the fortress, among the first of its kind attached to a European hotel.
History
The Cascais citadel is not one building but three campaigns stacked on the same headland. A medieval-style tower, the Torre de Santo Antonio, was begun in 1488 on the orders of King Joao II at the tip of the Salmodo point, to work with artillery ships guarding the Tagus estuary and the approach to Lisbon. Under Spanish rule a century later the unusually shaped triangular fortress of Nossa Senhora da Luz was raised to strengthen the bay, and after the restoration of Portuguese independence in 1640 the complex was enlarged again around a central courtyard, with bastions, barracks, batteries and a cistern.
In the nineteenth century King Luis turned the governor's house inside the walls into a summer palace, the Real Paco de Cascais, remodelled by the architect Joaquim Possidonio da Silva. It was at the Citadel Palace, in 1878, that Portugal saw its first electric lighting: six lamps ordered from Paris and mounted on the ramparts for the fifteenth birthday of the future King Carlos. Luis died there in 1889. Carlos added a floor of royal quarters in 1902 along with Portugal's first marine biology laboratory. That palace is now run by the Museum of the Presidency and still serves as an official summer residence for the President of Portugal; it is a neighbour of the hotel, not part of it.
The fortress buildings took a different path. Classified as property of public interest in 1977, they were granted to the Pestana group on a seventy-year concession and rebuilt over eighteen months at a cost of around twenty million euros, to a design by the architects Goncalo Byrne and David Sinclair that kept the stone and the volumes and filled them with light and white plaster. The Pousada opened on 18 March 2012 with 126 rooms and suites, the largest in the Pousadas de Portugal network at the time, and was formally inaugurated by President Anibal Cavaco Silva on 12 April. In March 2014 the Cidadela Art District followed: six galleries, site-specific work, artist rooms and open studios where guests can watch painters at work.
The setting
The hotel is inside the citadel walls on Avenida D. Carlos I, with the Cascais marina immediately below and the fishing town five minutes on foot. The royal habit of summering here from 1870 until 1908 is what turned Cascais from a fishing village into the resort of Lisbon society, and the villas that the nobility built to follow the court still line the bay. The citadel is part of the Bairro dos Museus, the town's museum quarter, so the Citadel Palace museum, the Conde de Castro Guimaraes house and the Paula Rego museum are all within a short walk. The nearest beach is a couple of minutes away; Cascais station, and the coastal line to Lisbon, about nine.
Restaurants and bars
- Taberna da Praça Cascais — Restaurant · Authentic Portuguese cuisine, snacks to share, cheese and ch
- Maris Stella — Restaurant · Buffet breakfast
- The Chapter — Restaurant · Salads, sandwiches, appetisers, burgers and sweets · Chef Chef Manuel Alexandre
Experiences
- Art District and Art Concierge — Project rooms, ateliers and galleries, temporary expositions and art installations within the Museum Neighborhood.
- Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell) — Cliff on the west coast of Cascais with spectacular sunset views.
- Guincho Beach — Popular beach with protected dunes from the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park; surfing and windsurfing.
- Beloura Pestana Golf Resort — 18-hole golf course at the foot of the Sintra Mountains.
- Casa das Histórias — Museum designed by Eduardo Souto de Moura displaying works by Paula Rego.
Amenities
- High-speed Wi-Fi
- Flatscreen TV
- Hardwood floors
- Art Concierge
- Déjà Lu charity bookstore
- Parking for guests (payable)
- Guided Cultural Tours
- Pet-friendly
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