Echoes of Writers: An Immersive Experience at Grande Hotel Paris

Originating in France, the Belle Époque developed between 1871 (the end of the Franco-Prussian War) and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. It was a time of peace and stability, associated with technological revolutions in transportation and communications, such as the telegraph, telephone, cinema, bicycle, electricity, and the automobile. These innovations contributed to closer ties between major cities, fostered an urban culture of leisure and entertainment, and fostered an atmosphere of peace, economic prosperity, and optimism. It was also a context conducive to the flourishing of the arts (and the birth of new movements such as Impressionism and Art Nouveau), photography, and cinema.

In Porto, this period was also associated with prosperous development and industrial and demographic growth, fueling significant urban expansion. In the mid-19th century, previously peripheral areas began to house factories, workshops, and working-class neighborhoods. The city witnessed the creation of markets, such as Bolhão (1837), gardens like São Lázaro (1834) and Cordoaria (1866), and cemeteries like Agramonte (1855). The city's evolution was also marked by the installation of public lighting systems (1855), domestic water supply (1887), and sanitation.
The development of transportation and traffic infrastructure led to the construction of new bridges between the banks of the Douro (such as the Maria Pia bridge in 1877, designed by the Parisian Casa Eiffel) and rail connections between the south and north. The "Americano," a horse-drawn public transport vehicle on rails, appeared in 1872. And in 1895, the electric car circulated for the first time in Porto and the Iberian Peninsula. That same year, the Port of Leixões opened on the seafront, replacing the old river port of the Douro.
At the same time, the city's social, cultural and political life is also experiencing great vitality.

Known for hosting many foreigners, especially Spaniards and French, the "Paris" hotel stands out for having hosted famous names from the Portuguese cultural scene. This includes the novelist Eça de Queiroz in 1866, in the weeks leading up to his wedding. Similarly, the most popular Portuguese poet of the late 19th century, Guerra Junqueiro, stayed here in 1885, the same year that one of the most prominent visual artists of the Belle Époque in Portugal, Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, chose the hotel for a stay in the city. However, it is the presence of the writer Camilo Castelo Branco that stands out most, particularly in room 017.

The gardens of the Crystal Palace, inaugurated in 1865, are one of Porto's most delightful spaces, retaining many of the hallmarks of the Belle Époque and its romantic inspiration. Grandiose and extensive (eight hectares), they are filled with diverse and exotic species of plants and trees, serving as a stage for majestic peacocks to stroll. The garden, designed by landscape architect Émille David, follows the romantic style of the period, with grottoes, lakes, evocations of ruins, and winding paths, surrounding the majestic Crystal Palace, an iron and glass structure inspired by London's Crystal Palace, which hosted numerous important exhibitions. Demolished in 1951, the Palace was replaced by the Rosa Mota Arena, a sports pavilion that is now a multipurpose venue and, with its modern architecture, has become one of the city's landmarks. Climbing to its dome affords a rare 360º view of Porto and the Douro River estuary and mouth. On Avenida das Tílias, used for many cultural initiatives, visitors will find the municipal library and a 19th-century chapel built in memory of the Italian king Charles Albert, who went into exile in Porto and died here in 1849.

Right in the city center, delight in visiting the S. Bento train station, considered one of the ten most beautiful in the world. A place of departure and arrival, of encounters and also of partings, it was designed in the early 20th century by the renowned Porto architect Marques da Silva, with a clear French influence, the result of his training in Paris. Before the station, the site had been home to the city's most important female monastery since the early 16th century: the S. Bento de Avé Maria monastery. A curious legend claims that, at dawn, the weeping of the ghost of its last nun, who died in 1892, grief-stricken by the building's destruction, can be heard. The train arrived here in 1896, but in temporary facilities because the late death of the last nun delayed the demolition of the monastery to make way for the station, which only opened in 1916. The more than 500 m2 atrium features 20,000 blue and white tiles by Jorge Colaço, dominated by themes from Portuguese history, as well as traditional scenes from the north of the country. The polychrome upper frieze depicts the history of the evolution of transportation.

This is the heart of the city! Since 1916, many of Porto's major institutions have been located here, including the City Council, the Bank of Portugal, newspaper offices, and banking and insurance establishments. Since then, the stage for major events, Avenida dos Aliados responded to the desire for a large central square that reflected the size and dynamism the city had known since the mid-19th century. But it was only at the beginning of the following century that this avenue was completed. Following Portugal's entry into World War I (1914-18), it was named Avenida das Nações Aliadas (later Avenida dos Aliados), honoring the national effort in the conflict, alongside the Allies. Designed by municipal architects, with input from Barry Parker, this English urban planner conceived the idea of crowning the avenue with the new City Hall building, built in 1920 but only completed 37 years later. The buildings on the Avenue form a harmonious and homogeneous whole, imposed by the Municipality, which forced the architects to design the facades with classical inspiration, giving the place an apparently more ancient image and monumentality.

Although belatedly opened after World War I on December 2, 1922, the "Majestic" is, with its thoughtful ambiance, meticulous service, exquisite decor, and the quality of its furniture and construction materials, one of Porto's most emblematic "Belle Époque" spaces. Built during a period of profound economic crisis in Portugal, it nonetheless evokes the "Roaring Twenties," being inseparable from the social context and artistic and cultural movements that Porto and Europe had experienced in the previous decades and the new era then emerging. The significant impact it had on the city at the time, the prominence it assumed among its social elite, and the attention it garnered in the media, which compared it to the best cafés then in London or Paris, did not, however, end in those early days. Since then, and over the past hundred years, the café has become one of the city's most iconic dining rooms. A meeting place for artists, intellectuals, scientists, politicians and, of course, the many outsiders who, when they arrive in the city, make a point of immersing themselves in the fantasy era of the "Belle Époque" through the Majestic.

Considered one of the three most beautiful bookstores in the world, "Lello" is, in its neo-Gothic revival style, so reminiscent of Romanticism, a cathedral of knowledge. And like medieval Gothic cathedrals, it even boasts a huge stained-glass window on the roof, bringing light and color to the bookstore's interior, illuminating the space and the spirit. Opened on January 13, 1906, designed by engineer Xavier Esteves, Livraria Lello also reflects the Belle Époque with its emphasis on modernity, evident in the visible rails on the floor, where carts carried books from the warehouse, and especially in its iconic central staircase, painted red, which almost everyone imagines to be made of wood but, in reality, was constructed of the then-innovative material... cement. Indeed, we are looking at one of the first concrete buildings in Portugal!
Although opened in 1916, "Lello" is the successor to an earlier bookstore—"Chardron"—founded in 1869 and, at the turn of the 19th century, the publisher of some of the most famous Portuguese writers of the time, such as Camilo Castelo Branco and Eça de Queiroz. Interestingly, the owner, Frenchman Ernesto Chardron, was one of the founding partners of the Grand Hotel Paris in 1877.

Due to its function, centrality, and monumentality, Bolhão is one of the city's most popular and iconic spaces. The constant hustle and bustle of people, the aromas of a wide variety of fresh produce, and the authentic vernacular of the vendors make this space unique. Built in 1839 to respond to the city's sharp population growth and growing health concerns, it has undergone successive expansions. Of particular note is the profound architectural renovation by António Correia da Silva in 1916, using then-innovative building materials (such as concrete), resulting in the spacious and iconic building we see today. More recently, it underwent a remarkable, award-winning regeneration project by architect Nuno Valentim, who preserved the original materials and decorative motifs, including tiles and metal structures. The origin of its name – Bolhão – is also curious, resulting from the large bubbles of water that, before the market was built, formed on the surface of these lands, which had marshy characteristics.

Built as an aristocratic residence in the late 18th century, the palace that now houses the Museu Nacional Sores dos Reis (whose collections and long-term exhibition include all the great Portuguese painters and sculptors of the Belle Époque period) was acquired in 1861 by King Pedro V, who made it the official residence of the royal family during their visits to Porto. Later, in 1894, and given the enthusiasm that was growing in the city and country around these fast, modern, and elitist vehicles that were… bicycles, King Carlos – himself a well-known sports enthusiast – authorized the construction of a "cycling track" in the backyard of his palace. Thus was born the velodrome, named after Queen Consort Amélie (Amélie d'Orléans), which is today an interesting open-air space for visiting part of the collection of the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, namely stone objects related to the history of the city, resulting from the demolitions in the 19th and 20th centuries of old convents, chapels, fountains and walls.