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A hotel that has stood on the Praça da Batalha for more than a century under three names: the Hotel Sul-Americano, rebuilt in 1912 for a man who had made his money in southern Brazil; the Grande Hotel do Império, enlarged in 1944–1945 to a design by the modernist architect Viana de Lima; and, today, the Legendary Porto Hotel. The building is not a protected monument. Its history can be followed in the building permits of the Porto municipal archive.
At a glance
The Praça da Batalha, at the top of the old town between the church of Santo Ildefonso and the Teatro Nacional São João, was for a long time the square of Porto’s inns and hotels. The Hotel Sul-Americano was one of them, owned by Álvaro de Azevedo, who had emigrated to Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and came back to run it for travellers returning from South America. In 1912 the city licensed the reconstruction of his hotel at numbers 127 to 134 of the square. In 1944 the company that owned it obtained a licence to enlarge the building across numbers 120 to 132, with the architect Alfredo Viana de Lima, and at the end of that year the hotel reopened as the Grande Hotel do Império. The building appears neither among the classified monuments of Porto nor on the municipal heritage map of the 2021 master plan.
Key facts
- Where: Praça da Batalha 127–130, 4000-102 Porto (Santo Ildefonso)
- Hotel Sul-Americano: owned by Álvaro de Azevedo; opened in 1907 according to the local history site Porto d’Honra
- Rebuilt: building permit 440/1912 of 2 April 1912, “HOTEL. Reconstruir”, Praça da Batalha 127–134, master builder José Barbosa; project changes licensed on 19 June 1912 and 25 April 1913
- Enlarged: building permit 437/1944 of 23 August 1944, “PRÉDIO. Ampliar”, for the Sociedade do Hotel Sul-Americano, Limitada, Praça da Batalha 120–132; architect Viana de Lima, civil engineer Adolf Spitz; certificate of occupancy of 23 August 1945
- Grande Hotel do Império: from the end of 1944, an initiative of the industrialist Joaquim Ribeiro de Almeida
- Later names: Quality Inn Porto, then the Legendary Porto Hotel
- Protection: none. Not a classified monument; not on the Porto municipal heritage map (Carta de Património, PDM 2021)
- Coordinates: 41.145666, -8.607458 · open in Google Maps
History
The Hotel Sul-Americano was named for its guests. Its owner, Álvaro de Azevedo, had emigrated to Rio Grande do Sul, and the hotel was the one preferred by the brasileiros de torna-viagem, the Portuguese who came home after making their fortune in Brazil. According to the blog Restos de Colecção, which quotes the magazine Ilustração Portuguesa, the interiors were decorated with azulejo panels showing the Corcovado, the Botafogo and scenes of the bay of Guanabara, the dining room opened onto the square, and every room, from the most expensive to the cheapest, had electric light, running water and drains. Porto d’Honra gives 1907 as the year of opening.
The municipal archive keeps the permits that shaped the building. In November 1911 Álvaro de Azevedo applied to rebuild the hotel at numbers 127 to 134, and the licence was issued on 2 April 1912, with the master builder José Barbosa in charge; two further permits, of June 1912 and April 1913, changed the project. The archive also holds postcards of about 1910 showing the dining room and the entrance hall with its lift, and one of about 1916 showing the front. In 1919 a permit allowed a window at numbers 128–129 to be turned into a door.
In 1944 the company that now owned the hotel, the Sociedade do Hotel Sul-Americano, Limitada, obtained a licence to enlarge the building over numbers 120 to 132. The architect was Alfredo Viana de Lima, then at the start of a career that made him one of the leading Portuguese modernists; the catalogue of his work lists a project for the Hotel Império on the Praça da Batalha in 1943. A photograph in the archive records that the house of the Casa de Espanha and its Spanish school, at numbers 120–124, was demolished for the enlargement of the Hotel Império. The certificate of occupancy was issued on 23 August 1945. By then the hotel had already taken its new name: at the end of 1944, after major changes inside and out, the Hotel Sul-Americano became the Grande Hotel do Império, an initiative of the industrialist Joaquim Ribeiro de Almeida, who on 13 October 1944 had opened the Hotel do Império in Lisbon.
The hotel later became the Quality Inn Porto and is now the Legendary Porto Hotel. In an article reproducing its own account, the hotel says that it was born in the late nineteenth century in a building made for that purpose; we have not found a record of the building before the Hotel Sul-Americano.
What you see
The photograph shows a long, plain front rendered in a warm salmon colour, divided into sections by flat vertical strips. Rows of square windows in white frames run across it, some on the left closed by roller shutters. Near the top, a band of balconies with projecting brackets and rails runs along the front, and above it rise further floors of windows.
The ground floor is clad in dark stone and glass. Over the hotel doors are the house numbers 127 and 128 and, on a canopy, the lettering “Legendary Porto Hotel”. On the left, the ground floor carries the sign of the Orfeão do Porto and a ticket office. Tram rails cross the cobbled paving of the square in front. Restos de Colecção records that the change of 1944 transformed the hotel outside as well as inside; we have not found the drawings that would say how much of the building of 1912 the present front contains.
Practical information
- The building is a hotel, the Legendary Porto Hotel; the interiors are for guests.
- The front can be seen at any time from the Praça da Batalha.
- The building has no heritage protection; what is described here is its documented history.
Getting there
The Praça da Batalha is at the top of the Rua 31 de Janeiro and the Rua de Santo Ildefonso, a few minutes’ walk uphill from São Bento station. The heritage tram line 22 passes through the square.
Nearby
- Cinema Batalha, on the same square, a few steps away.
- The church of Santo Ildefonso, with its azulejo front, and the Teatro Nacional São João of 1908, both on the square and both classified monuments.
- Café Majestic and the Coliseu do Porto, each about 200 metres to the north.
- São Bento station, about 250 metres to the west.
Do you know more?
On this page we have published the history of the hotel as the building permits of the Porto municipal archive record it: the reconstruction of the Hotel Sul-Americano in 1912 and the enlargement by Viana de Lima in 1944–1945. We could not find the drawings of either project, the name of whoever designed the hotel of 1912, what stood here before it, or when the hotel took the names Quality Inn and Legendary. If you know something — a name, a date, an old photograph or postcard of the Sul-Americano or the Império, a menu, a document, a book that mentions it — write to Sofia, who looks after these pages.
Write to Sofia or send a message on WhatsApp
Please start your message with the title of this page, so it reaches the right file. Every contribution is checked against independent sources before it goes on the page, and we always say where a piece of information came from.
Sources
- Arquivo Municipal do Porto, building permit 440/1912 (application 1 November 1911, licence 2 April 1912): “HOTEL. Reconstruir”, Hotel Sul Americano, Álvaro de Azevedo, Praça da Batalha 127–134, master builder José Barbosa.
- Arquivo Municipal do Porto, building permits 817/1912 (licence 19 June 1912) and 433/1913 (licence 25 April 1913, master builder Avelino Ramos Meira): changes to the hotel project, Praça da Batalha 127; 124/1919: a window turned into a door at numbers 128–129.
- Arquivo Municipal do Porto, building permit 437/1944 (licence 23 August 1944): “PRÉDIO. Ampliar”, Sociedade do Hotel Sul-Americano, Limitada, Praça da Batalha 120, 123, 126, 127, 130, 132; architect Viana de Lima, civil engineer Adolf Spitz; certificate of occupancy 137/1945 of 23 August 1945.
- Arquivo Municipal do Porto, photograph “Casa de Espanha: fachada principal” (1920s): the front of the Casa de Espanha and Escuela Española at Praça da Batalha 120–124, “demolished for the enlargement of the Hotel Império”.
- Arquivo Municipal do Porto, postcards of the Hotel Sul-Americano: dining room and entrance hall and lift (about 1910), front of the hotel (about 1916).
- Restos de Colecção, “Hotel Sul-Americano” (19 September 2011): Álvaro de Azevedo, the azulejo panels, the quotations from Ilustração Portuguesa, the Grande Hotel do Império at the end of 1944 and Joaquim Ribeiro de Almeida, the later Quality Inn.
- Manuel de Sousa, “Batalha: das hospedarias aos hotéis”, Porto d’Honra (1 April 2021): the Hotel Sul-Americano opened in 1907, its transformation into the Grande Hotel do Império at the end of 1944.
- Viana de Lima, Lisbon and Porto, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Árvore, 1996 (ISBN 972-959-38-0-9), list of works, as cited in Wikipedia (pt), Viana de Lima: “1943 – project for the Hotel Império, Praça da Batalha”.
- Câmara Municipal do Porto, Carta de Património I, PDM 2021 (open data): no entry for Praça da Batalha 120–134; entries for the church of Santo Ildefonso, the Teatro Nacional São João (1908) and the Cinema Batalha (1945).
- ineews, “Legendary Porto Hotel a gem in the center of Porto”: the hotel’s own account (late nineteenth century, the names “Empire” and “South American”).
- OpenStreetMap / Nominatim: position, returned as Legendary, 127–130, Praça da Batalha, Porto.
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