Dá Licença Boutique Hotel in Estremoz, Portugal

Dá Licença Hotel owners Vitor Borges and Franck Laigneau were hunting for their own personal holiday home when they came across a property amongst the olive groves overlooking the Alentejo Hills. Set in a natural eco-reserve outside of the historic city of Estremoz, Portugal, the pair decided the grandeur and scale of the land afforded them the chance to construct something bigger, and little by little Dá Licença took shape over 5 years.

Borges and Laigneau worked with local architects Procale to rejuvenate buildings that date back to 1840, embracing the past and combining lines, volumes and modern elements in a dialogue between traditional and contemporary architecture. Five suites, three bedrooms and communal areas span across three buildings. Each room has its own charm, some with private swimming pools, others with private gardens and terraces. The main building features a central courtyard and uniquely round swimming pool that reflects the surrounding nature. For private use, there is also a discreet emerald green infinity pool.

Façades and interior surfaces are rendered smooth and whitewashed, lending a minimal and monastic quality to the hotel. There are no doors between rooms, only openings with subtle arches. Despite being in a region prone to high temperatures, there is no air conditioning, rather utilizing granite floors and original blinds to temper the sun. Large, opulent bathrooms feature hand-sculpted marble sinks, and in two, solid marble bathtubs.

The hotel embodies the notion of art encountering nature, complementing one another throughout the décor, and lending the project its raison d’être. Both owners have a strong passion for art, though with different taste and sensibility. Jugendstil and Anthroposophical Design are given particular prominence. The former is a more graphic, geometric Scandinavian variant of French Art Nouveau, while the latter is derived from the early 20th-century philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, using organic, cubist and crystalline forms applied to furniture, highlighting function and materials.

With an aesthetic philosophy based on the Arts & Crafts movement, which stipulates that art exists everywhere, the owners place objects from their long-acquired personal collection throughout the hotel, ranging from monumental pieces in a bathroom to sculptures as you turn a corner in the garden. An homage to the region’s identifying material, marble, Borges designed objects such as side tables and lamps, made by local craftsman Francesco Pluma. Local artisans from the quarries hand-moulded the marble bathtubs, toilet bowls and sinks.

The complete estate consists of 120 hectares of hills and over 13,000 olive trees, planted on fertile land rich with the region’s white and pink marble. Uniquely positioned, the hotel has views of the Serra d’Ossa forest and the local Alentejo villages. A wholesome past, the land once belonged to the nuns of the Convent of Estremoz, who tended a sprawling organic vegetable garden, and later to a cooperative that produced olive oil.

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