The debut of the 68-room Vila Foz shows how a thoughtful and light-handed architectural intervention can so vividly rejuvenate a faded pile

It’s easy to imagine why Avenida de Montevideu was once such a choice address for Porto’s well-heeled upper class. A breezy 20-minute drive from the city’s considerably more dense centre, the long esplanade in the Foz do Douro neighbourhood featured an ornate necklace of 19th-century palatial mansions whose grand fin de siècle Empire facades and sprawling gardens serenely faced the broad stretch of beach and the Atlantic beyond.

很难想象为什么AvenidadeMonteidu曾经是波尔图著名的上层阶级的选择地址。这座城市有20分钟的车程，距离市中心有相当多的密集的中心，在福兹doDodo居民区的longEsplanade的特色是一座19世纪的宫殿华丽的项链，它的宏伟的鳍从帝国的立面和广阔的花园中偶然面对着海滩和大西洋的广阔伸展。

Only a handful of these stately homes have survived Porto’s gentrification, but the debut of the 68-room Vila Foz shows how a thoughtful and light-handed architectural intervention can so vividly rejuvenate a faded pile.

只有少数豪宅在波尔图的绅士化中幸存下来，但68间客房的维拉·福兹(Vila Foz)的首次亮相表明，经过深思熟虑和轻巧的建筑干预，可以让一堆褪色的房屋重新焕发活力。

For this, full credit goes to the architect Miguel Cardoso and interior designer Nini Andrade Silva who faithfully realigned the building’s old bones to create imposing room-sets, especially in the public areas. Under their watchful eyes, a squadron of artisans scraped away a century of accretions, painstakingly reguilded pilasters, restored elaborate cornices and mouldings, whilst reworking iron gratings in curling staircases, and polishing gorgeously retiled walls and ornate Baroque fireplaces.

为此，完全归功于建筑师米格尔·卡多佐和室内设计师妮妮·安德拉德·席尔瓦，他们忠实地重新排列了建筑的旧骨头，创造了壮观的空间设置，尤其是在公共场所。在他们的注视下，一个工匠中队刮走了一个世纪的积木，精心修整的枕木，修复了精致的檐篷和模子，同时在卷曲的楼梯上重新加工铁栏杆，并抛光了华丽的墙壁和华丽的巴洛克式壁炉。

The result of this almost maniacal obsession with historical and aesthetical accuracy is that, from the moment one rolls in through the garden and pulls up at the stone steps, the hotel feels wonderfully out of time.

这种近乎疯狂的对历史和美学准确性的痴迷的结果是，从一个人在花园里翻滚并在石阶前停下来的那一刻起，酒店就感觉到了美好的时光。

The momentum of the restoration also meant that it is only in the bedrooms that Silva has felt freer to experiment and be more playful in her palette of green hues, travertine, beveled mirrors and brassy hardware. Here, the eye is drawn especially towards the bed where the quotidian headboard has been replaced by an organic cut-out whose curved ridges evoke a rivulet curving upwards to the ceiling, the angles quietly counterposed by the asymetrically cut carpets and sharper lines of the stone flooring.

这种恢复的势头也意味着，席尔瓦只有在卧室里才能更自由地进行实验，在绿色色调、钙华色、斜面镜和铜质五金的调色板上更加嬉戏。在这里，眼睛特别是画在床上，在那里，普通的床头板已经被一个有机的切割物所取代，它的弯曲的脊使小溪弯曲到天花板上，这些角度被不对称切割的地毯和石材地板更锋利的线条悄悄地抵消了。

If additional privacy is required, the Manor House features a clutch of suites with bracing views of both sea and garden, alongside easy access to the in-house restaurant. And set deeper within the garden is a spa stocked with the usual suspects of Turkish bath, sauna, and indoor pool – though, to our mind, the rolling waves of the Atlantic, a few minutes walk away, are an equally compelling diversion. §

如果需要额外的隐私，庄园提供一系列套房，可以看到海景和花园，还可以方便地进入室内餐厅。花园里更深的地方是一个水疗中心，里面堆满了土耳其浴、桑拿和室内游泳池的常见嫌疑人-不过，在我们看来，几分钟就能看到大西洋滚滚的波浪，这也是一种同样引人注目的消遣。§