Hotel El Paraíso, Portugal

Hotel El Paraíso is an abandoned hotel in the north of Portugal. Abandoned since the late 1990s, this is a wonderfully rustic hotel. There is a beautifully quaint restaurant or banquet hall. A white and green stair runner winds its way up the staircase. We visited this hotel in the summer of 2017, on our Portugal 2017 Tour.

This town was a prominent mineral treatment works during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The only access to the town was via rough roads. This poor infrastructure kept the community isolated in the early days. These roads were little more than dirt paths. Visitors would travel in coaches from nearby cities, rattling and rolling along their winding route.

However, by the early 20th Century this towns isolation was at an end. The railroads were extended from nearby cities to reach this town in the early 20th Century. The town was re-branded as a spa town, to draw in a new crowd of tourists. As a result of the growing popularity, several hotels were built which were nearby to the train station. Hotel El Paraíso was one of these hotels. The town was one of the most popular spa towns in Portugal, being a regular retreat for the Portuguese monarchs and upper class.

The Arrival of Modern Hotels

There was another attempt to raise the towns tourist appeal in the 1990s. The town authorised the construction of modern health resort hotels. The new-wave of establishments offered a wide breadth of wellness and relaxation facilities, in addition to the traditional spa treatments. In response to this, the run-down early 1900s hotels lost favour among tourists and closed down. Hotel El Paraíso was one of the casualties that were left to rot.

The spa waters had some specific health benefits, it was claimed. According to brochures, the sodium bicarbonate-rich water would ease digestive complaints. Furthermore, the water is also rich in radioactive elements (which are reportedly also beneficial to health).