Monte Palace: the hotel that haunts the Azores islands
The only parts of the building left that bore any resemblance to the former five-star hotel were the wooden frames of the grand ground-floor doors to the elevator
A heavy fog had descended upon the island, clinging to the volcano making it impossible to see anything further than three metres in front of you. When we eventually arrived at the hotel, the impenetrable fog gave the derelict building an even eerier atmosphere. With all windows and doors absent, bright, white fog was crawling in from every gaping hole in the building.
Silence was all around, apart from the dripping pipes. It was the perfect setting for a horror film. Initially built in 1989, the 14,000 square-metre hotel consisted of 80 bedrooms, two restaurants, multiple bars and a nightclub.
At every turn, there were broken pipes and exposed cladding to be found. Everything was damp, possibly due to the 100% humidity and low-hanging cloud that wrapped around the building like a damp blanket.
Dozens of volcanoes sculpt the terrain on São Miguel. Surrounded by 50 hectares of natural vegetation, including a significant amount of the beautiful Japanese conifer cryptomeria, the luxury hotel was built in a dream location with half of the hotel bedrooms boasting unobstructed views of the Atlantic ocean, and the other half overlooking the beautiful lakes of the Sete Cidades caldera.
In the late 80s/early 90s however, São Miguel was not a popular holiday destination. Due to the lack of tourism, Monte Palace declared bankruptcy just 19 months after its grand opening. Ironically, it won the Best Hotel of the Year award in the same year that it closed down.