Wallpaper* checks in at MACAM Hotel: a night at the museum

Lisbon’s hospitality scene has evolved enormously over the last decade. Charming boutique palaces such as Palacio Principe Real, Verride Palacio de Santa Catarina, and the six-room gem, Santa Clara, have challenged the status quo of grand dames like the Four Seasons Hotel Ritz, built by dictator Salazar to show the world luxury, Portuguese-style, or even the capital’s first boutique hotel, the Bairro Alto. Chains such as the Six Senses and The Standard are poised to open on Lisbon’s cobbled streets, but the first hotel in a museum in Portugal has swung open its doors.

Wallpaper* checks in at MACAM Hotel, Lisbon

What’s on your doorstep?

The district of Alcântara, where MACAM is located, comprises a former industrial zone and a grander residential area with several palaces and museums. The old industrial zone is now home to a vibrant mix of bars and restaurants in the docks under the Ponte 25 de April, the longest suspension bridge in Europe. A few minutes’ walk will bring you to the B-MAD, Berardo Museum Art Deco, with works by René Lalique, among others. Even nearer is the Renaissance chapel, Capela de Santo Amoro, with 17th-century wall tiles, which offers beautiful views over the bridge. Elsewhere, a short stroll along Rua da Junqueira will bring you to Canalha, a beloved neighbourhood restaurant led by acclaimed chef João Rodrigues.

Who is behind the design?

The palace was commissioned in 1701 by the Marquis of Nisa but was acquired in 1752 by the Count of Ribeira Grande who renamed it in his honour, remaining a palace until the early 20th century when it became used as a school. At the time of its acquisition by collector and now owner Armando Martins, it was abandoned. Local architects Metro Urbe have renovated it to include 2,000 sq m of exhibition space, an auditorium, a restaurant, a café, a bar and a hotel.

Interior design comes courtesy of Martins and his daughter Sophia, alongside Portuguese firm Andrez Andrez and is contemporary in feel, with floors of oak and Perlina Bianca stone. Several of the lighting installations are from Bybeau, based in the south of Portugal. A colour-changing kaleidoscope greets visitors upon their arrival in the palace lobby. Meanwhile, a dimple hangs over the monumental double staircase twisting upwards to a library housing 5,000 books from Martins’ private collection. Then there is the art: 600 pieces of modern and contemporary collections. Highlights in the galleries include work by Amadeo de Sousa Cardozo, Paula Rego, Thomas Struth and Marina Abramović.

The room to book

There are 64 rooms in the hotel: 44 rooms and six studios in the old palace and 14 rooms in the new wing. The last, accessed through the gardens behind the palace, looks out onto them and the four sculptures displayed there – from the spacious bedrooms, which come with oval tubs in the bathrooms and separate showers behind elegant reeded glass doors. Amenities throughout are from the Portuguese brand, Benamôr 1925.

The rooms in the palace have high ceilings, original shutters and oak floors, with many in sage green tones. There are seven different types; some open onto a terrace, where a vertical composition of five polyhedrons by Canadian artist Angela Bulloch stretches up to a blue sky. Others are studios equipped with kitchenettes and easy access to the honesty bar with its frescoed ceiling of cherubs in the top gallery of the deconsecrated chapel.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Only hotel guests can access the chapel bar. Cocktails come with a side of art, namely, Spanish artist Carlos Aires’ mesmerising Trinity. In the niche behind the altar, a screen made up of images from Portuguese banknotes and amidst them, one of Armando Martins himself, can be slid back at the press of a button to reveal the body of Christ, suspended against a series of videos, from soaring flames to all-seeing eyes. Arts performances and concerts with bar service are held here regularly.

Dinner, across the gardens in Contemporâneo restaurant, highlights the wealth of Portugal’s culinary bounty courtesy of chef Tiago Valente. Vegetables come from the kitchen garden on site and at another of Martins’ palaces, outside Lisbon. Highlights include a caldeirada, a typical fish stew, featuring prawns from the Algarve, goose barnacles and cockles. My dinner was rounded off by young pastry chef Lara Figueiredo’s triumphant dish of textures of lemon and oranges, entitled ‘A Mulher da Laranja’ – an homage to the owner’s favourite painting in his collection, The Woman with the Orange, 1914, by Eduardo Viana.

The MACAM café serves light meals for gallery visitors and hotel residents, with a wide selection of breads and pastries available, including the much-loved Portuguese custard tarts, pasteis de nata.

Where to switch off

The rooftop hotel pool, set on top of the wing of new rooms, offers a swim with a view. A neighbouring bar will serve (hotel-only) guests. There is a small gym that looks onto the bell tower and the gardens beneath, and one treatment room, where massages can be had upon request. But the best place to switch off is the four galleries themselves. In the two temporary exhibitions and the two with Portuguese modern art and International and Portuguese contemporary art respectively, you can truly immerse yourself in another world.

The verdict

MACAM is an extraordinary achievement and the fulfilment of a lifetime dream for Armando Martins. While there are many hotels which house art, the opening of a hotel within a museum is certainly a first in Portugal. There is no doubt that the hotel, created with the same attention to detail and passion as the museum, will attract a number of guests in its own right and perhaps set one of them on their own path to collecting art.

MACAM Hotel is located at R. da Junqueira 66, 1300-343 Lisboa, Portugal; macam.pt