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The One Monumental Palace
Porto, Portugal · The One Hotels · Core Luxury
The Café Monumental opened here on 10 January 1930, reckoned one of the most sumptuous rooms on the Iberian Peninsula, with two resident orchestras, one jazz and one classical. The palace behind it rose on Avenida dos Aliados in the 1920s to a design by Michelangelo Soá, an Italian architect who had settled in Porto to teach, and from about 1935 it held a 38-room guesthouse on the fourth and fifth floors. Three years of work brought the building back in 2018 as a hotel of 76 rooms, the café revived and Le Monument's kitchen under the Michelin-starred Parisian chef Julien Montbabut.
- 76 rooms
- Opened 2018
- Neighborhood: Aliados
- Rooms from 312 sq ft (29 m²)
- Architect: Michelangelo Soá
About The One Monumental Palace
- João Queiroz, who designed the Café Monumental, had already given Porto the Salão Olympia in 1912 and the Café Majestic in 1921, the three great rooms of the city's cafe age.
- The building was put up for the firm Almeida Cunha and carried its name, Palácio Almeida Cunha, long before anyone thought of calling it a palace hotel.
- After decades of decay it was restored by the French group Maison Albar, which opened it as Le Monumental Palace. Original banisters, large mirrors, Art Nouveau lamps and Portuguese marble all survived.
- Le Monument, the Bar Americain and Yakuza by Olivier share the ground floor, and the foie gras arrives from France every week.
- The Grand Bleu Spa runs below street level with an indoor pool, sauna and hammam, and the 80-square-metre Porto Suite is decorated in 1930s style.
History
The building at Avenida dos Aliados 151 to 179 was promoted by the firm Almeida Cunha, Lda and became known as the Palácio Almeida Cunha. Permission was sought from Porto city hall in May 1923, the project was approved on 5 July 1925 and construction began that year, to a design by Michelangelo Soá, an Italian architect who had moved to Portugal to teach at the Escola Industrial Infante D. Henrique in Porto, with structural engineering by João Teixeira de Queiroz. Some sources date the completed building to 1923.
Two of its tenants made its name. The Monumental Café, owned by Pinheiro, Correia & Portugal, Lda, opened on 10 January 1930 to a design by the architect João Queiroz, who had already built the Salão Olympia in 1912 and the Café Majestic in 1921. It was counted among the most sumptuous cafes on the Iberian Peninsula, with a terrace, a basement restaurant and bar, and two permanent orchestras, one jazz and one classical. From around 1935 the Monumental Pensão Vaz, founded by Miguel Vaz, occupied the fourth and fifth floors with 38 rooms, entered at number 151. The building also housed the Palácio Ford showroom.
After decades out of use the palace was bought and restored by the French Maison Albar group in a three-year rehabilitation, reopening in late 2018 as Le Monumental Palace, the brand's debut in Portugal. Banisters, large mirrors, Art Nouveau lamps and Portuguese marble were kept, with new Belle Époque and Art Deco interiors around them, and the Café Monumental was revived as part of the hotel. The house has 76 rooms and suites, from 29-square-metre Superiors up to the 87-square-metre Monumental Suite and the 80-square-metre Porto Suite in 1930s dress. Dining runs through Le Monument, overseen by the Michelin-starred Parisian chef Julien Montbabut, the Bar Americain and Yakuza by Olivier; there is a library of antique books and the Grand Bleu Spa with an indoor pool, sauna and hammam. It now trades as The One Monumental Palace.
The setting
Avenida dos Aliados is the boulevard Porto uses as a stage, cut through the old town in the early twentieth century and lined with the ambitious commercial palaces of the period, rising to the city hall at the top. The hotel stands midway up, its front looking across at that tower. São Bento station is a couple of minutes downhill, its atrium lined with about twenty thousand azulejos painted by Jorge Colaço between 1905 and 1916. The Clérigos tower and the 1906 Lello bookshop are a short walk west, the Café Majestic on Santa Catarina about the same to the east, and the Ribeira quay and the port lodges of Gaia lie at the bottom of the hill.
Amenities
- Meeting rooms with projector and speakers connected via HDMI
- Air conditioning in conference rooms
- Complimentary Wi-Fi in conference rooms
- Request a quote for meetings and events
Awards
- Forbes Travel Guide Recommended (2026)
- MICHELIN One Key (2026)
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