The splendor of the “Belle Époque”
In December 17th 1921, the architect João Queirós
opened a luxurious café called Elite, in Santa Catarina Street, the most
central place of the city. More than a café, Majestic tells the story of Oporto
in the 20’s, of politic clubs and debates. Oporto of the “Belle Époque”, of writers and artists. Majestic illuminated the
sidewalk with its New Art decoration.
That was the day of the inauguration. There were many
people who went to that point of town only to see the splendid new building
that had just joined the architectural landscape of Oporto. It pleased not only
intellectuals and vagrants, but also ladies of the high society that took there
their tea or their ice-cream.
Although the opening was a success, the name of the
building gave him a monarchical aura that didn’t match with the republican,
bourgeois and chic environment. The glamour and Parisian cultural elite were
references to the Portuguese culture back then, having influenced the choice of
the new name – Majestic – full of ‘’Belle
Époque’s” charm.
In a place that is art by self-merit, students and
teachers of Belas Artes’ School of Oporto and artists like Júlio Resende would
get together to break new grounds and artistic motivations, to propose ruptures,
to criticize formalisms, conceptualizing new ways or simply to hear what was
said then.
The Majestic Café, inspired in Marques da Silva’s
work, remains till today as one of the most beautiful and representative
examples of New Art in Oporto. The building, founded in 1916 in Santa Catarina
Street with Passos Manuel Street, predicted the existence of establishments
facing the pedestrian street. The imposing marble façade, with aspects of
sinuous forms, shows the good decorative style of the time. Three elegant
frontispieces mark the façade, limited by a rectangular section, torn in glass.
On top, a fronton caps the composition with the initials of Majestic. Two
children side its name that, in an amusing way, invite the client to go
in.
Inside the café the decoration is New Art. The
symmetry of the curved wooden frames and the decorative details catch the
attention. Big mirrors marked by the time, intercalated with lamps of worked
metal, set out the walls in an intelligent optic game of amplitude, which gives
a bigger dimension than it really is. Stucco sculptures, representing human
faces, denuded figures and big flowers, confirm the sensual taste, while two
lines of embossed leather seats replacing the originals in red velvet create a
sensation of deep and elegant coziness.
The sinuous border of the mirrors’ frames, lamps’
luminosity, the details in marble and cheerful busts, which extend from the
walls to the ceiling, give the café a golden and comfortable ambience,
instigating to rest and small talk. Majestic emanates an atmosphere of luxury,
refinement and welfare.
The inside terrace, built in 1925, is a corner with
delicate outlines, with a small ladder and with a small balustrade, built like
as if it was a winter garden. Under the direction of Pedro Mendes da Silva,
this space represents a new era for Majestic. The construction of the bar and
the connection to the café through a staircase allowed to open a new front to
Passos Manuel Street, "…where will be put for sale port wine. For that, we
picked the regional style of our architecture, not only to the construction of
the bar, but also to barrier of the wall". The new front was subsequently
idealized and executed following different molds of those used inside. If this
is the international taste, the new space, without rejecting it, presents a new
style, more rustic, expressing what later Raul Lino called “Portuguese home”.
The numerous awards and the international recognition
- "Prémio Especial de Café Creme"
(1999), "Medalha de Prata de Mérito Turístico"
(2000), "Medalha de Prata de Mérito
Municipal - Porto" (2006), "Certificado
do Prémio Mercúrio – O melhor do Comércio na área das empresas na categoria
Lojas com História" (2011) and "Medalha Municipal Mérito – Grau Ouro" (2011), classified by Cityguides
website as the 6th more beautiful café of the world and the Excellency
Certificated of TripAdvisor – appeared with simplicity, giving it finally the
fair prestige that for a long time had been forgotten.
