With its immaculate facade shining in the sun, the Copacabana Palace is Rio de Janeiro’s most iconic hotel.
Since its opening on August 13, 1923, world-renowned heads of state, celebrities and royals have frequented the establishment that has an impressive view of Rio’s famous Copa Cabana beach.
The family of Octávio Guinle, the hotel’s founder managed the palace until 1989. It became part of the LVMH conglomerate in 2018.
“Copacabana Palace is a place of joy, a place for weddings, a place for parties where people want to have fun,” the general lanager of the palace says.
“A word that stands out in our hotel [for me] is: Celebration! It is a hotel of celebration, of glamor.”
The guestbook is a true relic. White gloves are required to flip through the pages, filled with famous signatures, like that of the “King” Pelé, who drew a ball entering the goal.
One night in a suite overlooking the ocean costs over 1,000 US dollars.
Pearl of high society
At the end of the Hall of Fame, where the portrait gallery is displayed, there is a large photograph of the hotel taken just after its construction.
The contrast with the current landscape is surprising. The building seems almost isolated, surrounded by a vast expanse of sand, with only a few two or three-story houses along the shoreline.
It’s nothing like the row of buildings – including other luxury hotels – that now continuously rise along Copacabana Beach, one of the world’s most famous.
Source : Africa News
