Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin You’d be hard pressed to find a quieter corner in Lisbon than the Lapa district. Well, this hilly city of curvy streets doesn’t have many corners per se, but refined Lapa stands out for its embassies and consulates, and mansions and villas with fine gardens, all haunts of the city’s Old World personages. The Olissipo Lapa Palace anchors the elegant Lapa district of embassies and consulates.
Credit: Olissipo Lapa Palace Acquired shortly after its late-19th century construction by a count who came from a line that dates to the 15th century, the Olissipo Lapa Palace is an especially tranquil property there to make your Lisbon headquarters while you explore the now madly-popular Portuguese capital. Right as you hit the iron gates and enter the courtyard, you’re greeted by a lovely and huge calçada paving stone mosaic featuring two calligraphic double looped letters L, one of them centered in an orange sunburst. Enormous floral arrangements in the main hall of the original palace, now the reception and lobby, put you in a bright mood as well.
As do the first of enough chandeliers to light up the neighborhood. For all its quiet grandeur, the Leading Hotels of the World member property is known for discreetly hosting dignitaries and celebrities, and you may even find yourself sitting on a breakfast patio near rock stars who perform in town (even if Springsteen, Sting, Bono and other celeb royalty of our age who stay here likely stick to room service). Pool gardens turn the Olissipo Lapa Palace into an urban resort.
Creit: Olissipo Lapa Palace MORE FOR YOU ‘The Boys’ Dethroned In Amazon Prime Video’s Top 10 List By A New Show ‘House Of The Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 8 Review: A Hugely Underwhelming Season Finale Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Monday, August 5th For all its ornamented elegance, the Lapa Palace is really an urban resort hotel. The enormous and shady tropical and Mediterranean trees in the spacious pool garden, as well as fountains in the koi pond, leave no doubt. The lushness will all pop at you when you step onto your balcony in the Garden Wing that was added when Lapa Palace became a hotel a few decades ago, as will the view of the great Tagus river estuary beyond the property.
Should you be sun averse and choose not to lie on a chaise lounge on the cool grass, there is an indoor pool as well in the property spa. The Lapa Palace style is often described as from the eras of João V, Maria I and José I. If you’re not familiar with those 18th- and 19th-century Portuguese monarchs, you’ll get the drift quickly with the brocade curtains, plenty of period prints on the walls, and the overall gilded plushness of your rich aunt’s Upper East Side apartment.
In short, a world to luxuriate in. function loadConnatixScript(document) { if (!window.cnxel) { window.
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Elsewhere in the hotel, porcelain comes from northern Portugal’s Vista Alegre factory, fine stained glass is set in the Eca de Queiroz drawing room off the lobby, and various historic portraits show past owners. The hallway en route from the original palace to the new wing has several boutiques, including Alexander Laut jewelry and an arts shop with plenty of tile plate works. The Eca de Queiroz Lounge is just off the Olissipo Lapa Palace's main hall.
Credit: Olissipo Lapa Palace Chef Hélder Santos’s tasting menu in the Lapa Restaurant includes a passion fruit marinated beetroot salad and other starters the likes of which you have likely never sampled before. Perhaps you’ll need to inquire also about the mussel stuffed piquillo pepper, salsify, and chlorophyll sauce that accompanies the braised hand-fished sea bass. But surely you can suss out low temperature confit black pork suckling pig, potato rings and carrot purée.
In addition to the main restaurant, Le Pavillon pool restaurant is seasonal, and guests can always enjoy tea time at the Rio Tejo piano bar. When you do finally step out from your walled garden retreat, you can easily walk to the National Museum of Ancient Art (MNAA), itself housed in a late-17th-century palace once owned by the brother of Portugal’s powerful Marquis of Pombal whose portrait hangs in the hotel. The museum holds works by Bosch, Raphael, and Dürer.
You’ll find furnishings and textiles from the same periods as those found in the Lapa Palace, as well as illuminated manuscripts, and the elaborate gold Belém Monstrance. Minutes away too on the river banks, the Belém district once held that monstrance in its 16th-century Jerónimos Monastery, which is under conservation of the World Monuments Fund . The eight-year-old MAAT museum of art, architecture and technology is a huge hit in Belém as well.
Tower Room at the Olissipo Lapa Palace. Credit: Olissipo Lapa Palace Should you wish to plunge into the melee of tourists and the digital nomads who have taken over Lisbon, a five-minute Uber ride from the palace takes you to the starting point of the celebrated and super fun tram No. 28 that goes all the way to the ancient Alfama district.
You’ll be more than ready afterward to recover in your Lapa Palace luxury refuge..
