Copacabana Palace (currently branded as Copacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel), is a hotel in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, facing Copacabana beach. Designed by French architect Joseph Gire, it was built in a style that follows the line and model of the great beach hotels of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and opened on August 13, 1923.[1]
With over a century of existence, Belmond Copacabana Palace continues to be one of the most important hotel complexes in the city of Rio, and in Brazil, with two hundred and forty-three rooms (116 apartments and 127 suites),[2] divided between the main and the annex building, in an area of twelve thousand square meters.[3]
The hotel has been voted several times as the best hotel in South America, including in 2009, when it won the World Travel Award,[4] one of the most important tourism awards in the world.
History
Beach view from the entrance of the Copacabana Palace in the 1930sFashion show at the Copacabana Palace in the 1940s
Belmond Copacabana Palace was built by businessman Octavio Guinle and Francisco Castro Silva between 1919 and 1923, in an initiative of President Epitacio Pessoa (1919-1922), who wanted a large tourism hotel in the then capital of the country, to help host the great number of visitors expected for the big Centennial of the Independence of Brazil Exhibition, an event of international dimensions to be held on the esplanade of Castelo, a region in downtown Rio de Janeiro, in 1922. In return, the Federal Government would grant tax incentives, as well as the license to have a casino work in it - a requirement of the entrepreneur.
Once the agreement was done, the businessman acquired a plot of land on Copacabana beach, facing Avenida Atlântica, which was extended in 1919 by engineer Paulo de Frontin. At the time, the hotel was the first large building in Copacabana, and was surrounded only by small houses and mansions.
French architect Joseph Gire was hired to carry out the project, drawing inspiration from two famous hotels on the French Riviera: the Negresco, in Nice, and the Carlton, in Cannes. The structure, sober and imposing, was erected by engineer César Melo e Cunha, who employed, on a large scale, Carrara marble and Bohemia crystals.
However, the hotel was only inaugurated on August 13, 1923, almost a year after the Centennial Exposition. This was due to the difficulties in the importation of marbles and crystals and in the execution of its foundations (with a fourteen-meter depth, as required by the project); to the lack of technology and experience in the country for such manufacturing; and a violent undertow that, in 1922, destroyed Avenida Atlântica, causing damage to the hotel's lower floors.
Noble Room
To mark the inauguration, the great French singer, actress and vedetteMistinguett was invited to the ceremony, and, despite having the famous "most beautiful legs in the world", was prohibited from showing them at the party. Her presence and presentation made the hotel's inauguration an event of world proportions.
In view of the delay in the execution of the project, President Artur Bernardes (1922-1926) tried to revoke the license to operate the casino in 1924. The matter was referred to Court, and the Guinle family, after ten years of dispute, won the case. The hotel and its casino were essential for the consolidation of the fame and glamour of the neighborhood in the following decades.
The Hotel at Sunset
On May 23, 1928, President Washington Luis (1926-1930) was shot at the hotel by his mistress, the Italian marquess Elvira Vishi Maurich, who was 28 years old at the time. President Washington Luis was then hospitalized, with the official statement affirming he had had an appendicitis crisis. Four days later the young marquess was found dead. The police report stated it to be a suicide.[5][6]
Copacabana Palace pool.
In 1934, the hotel's swimming pool was built, and, in 1949, it was extended, with a project by engineer César Melo e Cunha. In 1938, the "Golden Room" was inaugurated, with a show by French actor, cabaret singer and entertainer Maurice Chevalier.
In April 1946, after World War II, President Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1946-1951) banned gambling in the country. The casino was then transformed into a concert hall, and the hotel underwent a major renovation, increasing its capacity and adding two areas to the main building: the side pergola and the back annex (opened in 1949). This remodeling was in charge of architect Wladimir Alves de Sousa.
With the capital of Brazil being transferred to Brasilia in 1960, the hotel experienced a period of slow decay, until it was overcome by more modern hotels, built in the 1970s.
In 1985, its demolition was projected. However, Copacabana Palace became a cultural property, being registered in federal (IPHAN), state (INEPAC) and municipal (SEDREPAHC) levels. In 1989, the Guinle family, represented by José Eduardo Guinle, sold it to the then Orient Express group, now called Belmond, which rehabilitated the Copacabana Palace, modernizing the old facilities without removing their character.
Related Research Articles
Copacabana is a bairro (neighbourhood) located in the South Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is most prominently known for its 4 km (2.5 miles) balneario beach, which is one of the most famous in the world.
Urca is a traditional and wealthy residential neighborhood with nearly 7,000 inhabitants in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Although most of the neighborhood dates from the 1920s, parts of it are much older. What is now called the Forte São João, a military base at the foot of the Sugarloaf Mountain, is where the first Portuguese settlement in Rio was founded by Estácio de Sá on March 1, 1565. The French had arrived 12 years earlier and founded a settlement, called France Antarctique, close to what is now Flamengo and Gloria districts, in downtown Rio. The French, riven by internal disputes between Catholics and Protestants, were massacred by the Portuguese and their Indian allies in attacks organised from here, expelling them from the nearby Villegagnon Island. The street now called Rua São Sebastião, in Urca, which leads from behind the fort to the Urca casino, was originally a trail from the Portuguese fort skirting the edge of the sea to the mainland along the peninsula that houses the Sugar Loaf and a smaller hill, the Morro da Urca. Rua São Sebastião thus has some claim to be the oldest street in Rio.
The Copacabana Fort revolt, also known as the 18 of the Fort revolt, was one of several movements coordinated by rebel factions of the Brazilian Army against the president of Brazil, Epitácio Pessoa, and the winner of the 1922 presidential election, Artur Bernardes. Acting under the figure of marshal Hermes da Fonseca and supporting the defeated faction, the Republican Reaction, the rebels tried a wide revolt in Rio de Janeiro on 5 July 1922, but only managed to control Fort Copacabana and the Military School of Realengo, in addition to, outside the city, a focus in Niterói and the 1st Military Circumscription, in Mato Grosso. They were defeated, but the revolt marks the beginning of tenentism and the events that led to the end of the First Brazilian Republic.
Heráclito Fontoura Sobral Pinto was a Brazilian lawyer known for his human rights activism and devout Catholicism. He strongly opposed dictator Getúlio Vargas and worked against Brazil's later military regime following the military coup of 1964.
Rio Branco Avenue, formerly Avenida Central, is a major road in downtown Rio de Janeiro. It was built as the leading brand of the urban reform carried out by the mayor Pereira Passos in early 20th century.
The Hotel Glória was a grand hotel in the Glória neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was built by entrepreneur Rocha Miranda for the International Exhibition of 1922 to commemorate the centennial of Brazil's independence. It opened on August 15, 1922. The hotel was designed by Joseph Gire, who also designed the Copacabana Palace. It was reportedly the first reinforced concrete building to be built in South America and was erected with the aid of German engineers.
The Joseph Gire Building, better known as the A Noite Building or Edificio o Jornal A Noite, is an office building located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that served as the headquarters of the Rio-based newspaper A Noite. At a height of 102 meters, it was the tallest building in Brazil for two years between 1927 and 1929 before it was surpassed by the Martinelli Building in São Paulo.
The Hotel Atlantico Praia, formerly the Ouro Verde Hotel, is a small hotel in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At one time the Ouro Verde was considered one of the world's best small hotels, and the restaurant had a high reputation. Over time it lost some of its lustre, but it has recently been renovated.
The Palácio Quitandinha is a historic former luxury resort hotel in Petrópolis, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 1947, the Palácio Quitandinha was the site of the Rio Treaty, attended by United States President Harry Truman.
Avenida Atlântica is a major seaside avenue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) long, and spans the entire length of the neighbourhoods of Copacabana and Leme.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Events in the year 1923 in Brazil.
Events in the year 1958 in Brazil.
Eduardo Pallasim Guinle was a Brazilian businessman and the patriarch of the Guinle family.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Rio de Janeiro:
Antônio de Siqueira Campos was a leader and one of two survivors of a military revolt that occurred in July 1922 on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which became known as the Copacabana Fort revolt. Following release from prison he took part in further rebellions including the so-called Prestes Column from 1925 to 1927.
The Cinema Rian was a theatre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil founded by artist and former first lady of Brazil Nair de Tefé in November 1932. The theatre was located in a well-to-do area on the Avenida Atlântica, Copacabana, facing the Atlantic Ocean. The theatre was considered one of the best-known in Rio de Janeiro before its demolition in 1983.
The Brazilian Belle Époque, also known as the Tropical Belle Époque or Golden Age, is the South American branch of the French Belle Époque movement (1871-1914), based on the Impressionist and Art Nouveau artistic movements. It occurred between 1870 and February 1922 and involved a cosmopolitan culture, with changes in the arts, culture, technology and politics in Brazil.
The presidency of Washington Luís in Brazil began on 15 November 1926, after he won the 1926 presidential election, the 13th presidential election held in Brazil, becoming the 13th President of Brazil, and ended on 24 October 1930, when he was deposed by the military during the Revolution of 1930. Following the troubled presidency of Artur Bernardes, Washington Luís still had to deal with the tenentist movement, with the end of the Prestes Column, which had lasted since 1925, being a significant development.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
