It’s big, it’s curved, it’s modern, but the new Savoy Palace hotel still has echoes of Madeira’s past
The Savoy Palace has, quite literally, filled a gap on the island of Madeira. Its predecessor, the Savoy Classic, was built in 1912 – some 500 years after the Portuguese discovered the island – in the capital Funchal, so called because of the fragrance of wild fennel (or funchal) which filled the air.
It was frequented by British aristocrats who came for the warm winters, subtropical gardens and, of course, the wine of Madeira. Made with local grapes, fortified with alcohol derived from the local sugar cane, it fast became a popular tipple.
But over the decades, other hotels sprung up to the right and left of it and the Savoy Classic became a relic of the past. In 2008 it was torn down with the intention of replacing it with a new structure rising phoenix-like from the ashes, but in between its demolition and the breaking of the ground for the new project, the recession hit. Roll on 11 years and a change of ownership and the island woke up, on July 1 this year, to see its largest hotel, shaped liked an undulating wave, its 16 floors stretching up into the sky, swing open its doors. The gap was filled.
This being a hotel with history, people feel they have some claim on it. The Savoy Palace was always going to have to pay homage to Madeira’s cultural heritage, to overlay its 21st century modernity with references to the island’s past, to root it with a sense of place. No one could be more suited to the task than Funchal-born interior designer Nini Andrade Silva, who has represented Portugal on the world design stage for decades and created hotels from The Vine, also in Funchal, to the WC Beautique Hotel in Lisbon, Belém’s Palácio do Governador and the new W in São Paulo. With a brief from its owners to imbue the hotel with the spirit of Madeira, she and local architects RH+ set to work.
The exteriors draw on its proximity to the sea, with a bold, curved, wavelike structure. Each floor ends with a suite and a terrace, which look like uneven piano keyboards running up one side. On the rooftop, two infinity pools bookend the presidential suites, seemingly suspended between the sea and sky, layer merging into layer of blue. Adjoining the pool on one side is Galáxia Restaurant, a nod to the nightclub of the same name in the old Savoy Classic, promising a dining experience fit for the stars with chef Renato Camacho, from neighbouring Belmond Reid’s Palace, taking up the helm when it opens this autumn. On the other side of the hotel’s rooftop is Jacarandá, its pool and restaurant open exclusively for breakfast and lunch for the guests of the hotel’s suites, cleverly creating the intimacy of a boutique hotel within the large resort. Look down from there and a vast swimming pool stretches out beneath you, straddled by a bridge whose dull gold metal work draws on the shapes and designs of traditional Madeiran embroidery.
This is repeated in the curved bannisters of the stairs and in the panels on either side of the beds. Wickerwork, another age-old staple of the island’s artisans, lines the walls in Vimes Entertainment Bar, while above it another bar weaves images of leafy island plants into its rugs and illuminates the ceiling with a backlit canvas, screen-printed with more greenery.
• This month's best new hotel openings
Stop at the entrance to the hotel lobby, a vision in salmon pink, where curtains on the walls “set the stage” to admire a table of protea flowers and tiny sapatinhos (slipper orchids), above which hangs a 13lb chandelier wrought from metal chains. There are also custom-made pieces of furniture and refurbished pieces from the old Savoy Classic, which lend elegance with their belle époque feel.
Into this mix come firsts for the island (indeed, the Savoy Palace is the first Leading Hotel of the World there): a cigar club, a gourmet shop where Madeiran delicacies can be bought, and the largest spa in Portugal. The design of the 32,000 sq ft spa is inspired by the Madeira’s Laurissilva Forest, the biggest surviving laurel forest in the world and a Unesco World Heritage site. The swimming pool is created to imitate the Dona Beja lagoon, eerily lit from above. There are waterfalls and Kniepp cobbled hot and cold water paths, a nod to the famous levadas (irrigation channels) which have been cut into the steep terraces all over the island. You’ll find treatments by Sodashi and Aromatherapy Associates, Margaret Dabbs, Linda Merdith and for men, Gentlemen’s Tonic and Vitaman.
Upstairs, the 352 bedrooms – behind glossy, solid, wooden doors, the kind you have to put your shoulder to to open – come in muted colours of champagne and off-white. A magnificent walnut root desk takes pride of place. All the rooms have sea views with sliding glass doors on to terraces. Suites, on the end, open out to a plunge pool or hot tub, the luxury of which is somewhat spoilt by the lime green artificial grass. Showers are large and lavish, as are the televisions, the latter there for when the clouds roll in over the Atlantic.
• The best European city breaks and where to stay
Outside the hotel, it is a short stroll to the harbour and Nini Andrade Silva’s Design Museum, or into the Old Town where Funchal is slowly shifting to entice a younger generation of visitors with cool, contemporary restaurants and bars. The Savoy Signature collection, now six properties in total with the opening of the Savoy Palace, is doing its bit too, having set its eyes on a new hotel which it will open next year with a rooftop swimming pool and a DJ booth right by the sea. For now, though, I’m content with the dash of daring in the Fátima Lopes uniforms (another local designer) worn by the doorman: silver grey morning coats with a pink trim and a decidedly pink top hat.
Doubles from €200 (£181), B&B
Read the full expert review: Savoy Palace
