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Grande Hotel Beira
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Grande Hotel Beira was a luxury hotel in Beira, Mozambique that was open from 1952 to 1963. Its closure was a direct result of the Portuguese Colonial War, during which it became a refugee camp. Today the former hotel is still occupied by approximately 1,000 squatters.
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When hotel opened in 1952, when it was billed as the "pride of Africa," and was widely regarded as the largest and most exquisite hotel on the continent. It was a popular destination for wealthy Portuguese and British (from nearby Rhodesia). Only nine years after its opening, however, the hotel was forced to close due to civil unrest associated with the Portuguese Colonial War. The approximately 3000 people took refuge in the hotel during the war resisted any attempt by the government to remove them.
Journalist Florian Plavec describes a visit to the hotel in a July 2006 feature in the Austrian newspaper Kurier. According to his accounts, virtually everything of any value has been looted from the hotel, including its marble and bathroom tiles, wooden flooring, sinks, and bathtubs. The former pool now serves as a water collector for clothes washing, and the former pool bar as a urinal. The hotel has also experienced structural damage, as trees continue to grow out of terraces, floors collapsed, and the area has experienced earthquakes.