Restaurant Bar, Luso, Portugal  

Surrounded by the majestic Forest of Bussaco, a forest with unique architecture, landscape and botanical treasures, is the Palace Hotel do Bussaco, one of the most beautiful and historical hotels in the world.

Idyllically situated on the heart of the Forest of Bussaco, a forest that was first planted by Carmelites in the first quarter of the 17th century and has species from all over the world, including the world famous Cedar of Goa (Cupressus lusitanica). Its shape evoking the Tower of Belém in Lisbon, the Palace Hotel is surrounded by an impressive ocean of green, a magical forest where there are also springs, chapels, viewpoints, a Way of the Cross and a Convent. The building, the ultimate example of the Portuguese Neo-Manueline style, was designed in the last quarter from the 19th century by the Italian architect Luigi Manini, a set designer at São Carlos theatre in Lisbon. Other architects involved at later stages were Nicola Bigaglia, Manuel Joaquim Norte Júnior and José Alexandre Soares. Built in Ançã limestone, it is a combines the outline of the Tower of Belém, motifs from the cloisters of the Jerónimos monastery, arabesques and flourishes from the Convent of Christ in Tomar, its medley of florid Gothic and Romanticism contrasting with an austere monasticism.