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terça-feira, 4 de setembro de 2018

Hotel Bela Vista: memories of a grande dame

"It is a magical place, it is a mythological place. It is somewhere which one cannot believe does not have a fantastic legend to its name, where you feel the presence of Bogart … or Bacall … or Loretta Young, or Hemingway …” Those were the words of French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who stayed at Macau’s Hotel Bela Vista in 1968.
The yellow-and-white building on Penha Hill has seen its share of fantastic times since William Clarke - the British captain and commander of the Heungshan steamer that travelled between Macau and Hong Kong - and his wife Catherine decided to open Macau’s first Western-style luxury hotel. They chose the three-story neoclassical building and called it the Boa Vista (Portuguese for “good view”).
Opened on July 1, 1890, it also had direct access to the beach, “hot, cold, shower and seawater baths, large and ventilated dining, billiards, reading room” and a “well supplied bar”. The hotel attracted a number of famous guests but revolutionary currents swirled through China and in November 1899, with hardly any customers, Clarke sold the hotel to the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamer Company for 15,000 patacas.
The hotel later reopened under new management but police shut it down due to illegal gambling activities. From 1917 to 1923, it housed a school and Portuguese poet Camilo Pessanha was one of the teachers.
On December 23, 1936, the hotel reopened with a new name, Bela Vista (“beautiful view”), but, in the wake of the Sino-Japanese War, it was used instead to accommodate some of the thousands of refugees from Hong Kong and the mainland. After the war, Allied soldiers rested there.
In the early 1950s, the Bela Vista became famous for lavish balls that attracted hundreds of wealthy socialites and expatriates from Hong Kong and Macau. In 1967, Adrião Pinto Marques became the hotel manager. A fan of Napoleon, he decorated the site with memorabilia of the French leader. Pinto Marques, who was also known for lying on a chair on the verandah for hours at a time, died in 1985 and his son took over.
The hotel, with its “magical” setting and East-meets-West atmosphere, became a popular location for films and TV shows such as Around the World in 80 Days and Return to Paradise.
By the end of the 1980s, when the hotel was deteriorating, the Macau government declared the Bela Vista a historic monument.
After a major restoration, it reopened in 1992 as a boutique hotel, with a décor resembling that of a traditional Portuguese mansion with eight rooms.
Seven years later, as Macau was preparing to return to Chinese rule, the hotel bid its final guests farewell in a series of lavish parties and The Last Bela Vista Ball arranged by Hong Kong party host Ted Marr.
“Five hundred people, who have each spent HK$2,200, will dance until dawn observing the dress code, ‘black tie, gorgeous in gold or Walking on Sunshine’, the last a tribute to the song without which no Ted Marr event is complete”, reported the South China Morning Post at the time.
By the end of 1999, the Bela Vista was converted to the residence of Portugal’s consul for Macau and Hong Kong, which it remains today.
Article by João Botas for "Destination Macau" magazine (Hong Kong) March/April 2015.

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