Pestana Cidadela Cascais - Pousada & Art District

Set within a sixteenth-century citadel above the Cascais Marina, this Pestana property has made a home for artists alongside its guests. Studios and galleries ring the complex, the first hotel in Europe to run its own Art District, where an Art Concierge points the way to classes, shows and exhibits, and where noted artists are occasionally handed the run of the rooms and public spaces for what the hotel calls…Set within a sixteenth-century citadel above the Cascais Marina, this Pestana property has made a home for artists alongside its guests. Studios and galleries ring the complex, the first hotel in Europe to run its own Art District, where an Art Concierge points the way to classes, shows and exhibits, and where noted artists are occasionally handed the run of the rooms and public spaces for what the hotel calls Art Invasions. The rooms themselves are bright and modern, laid over wooden floors, soundproofed, each with a seating area and the quieter comforts of robes and slippers. There are two pools with marina views, one indoors and one on a stretch of surrounding lawn. Breakfast is laid out with a view that reaches across the bay to the Santa Maria Lighthouse. Two restaurants divide the day between them: Maris Stella for fish and seafood, the smaller Taberna da Praça for tapas. In the lounge, 608 swallows mark the number of days the renovation took. The pedestrian square just outside holds the World Press Cartoon Museum, and the centre of Cascais is about 15 minutes' drive. Staff at the round-the-clock desk can arrange diving, cycling and other pursuits along the coast.