Grande Hotel Beira

- 19.832534.857222222222Koordinaten: 19 ° 50 ' S, 34 ° 51' O The Grande Hotel Beira is a former hotel in Beira in Mozambique. The former "Pride of Africa" ​​became a ruin, in between 2000 and 3000 destitute people, including about 1,000 children, have sought shelter.

The building on Avenida Mateus Sansão Muthemba is composed of several blocks, the floor plan has approximately the shape of an L. The hotel was about 12,000 square meters, had 110 rooms and suites with views of the Indian Ocean, a ballroom and a swimming pool with Olympic proportions. In the synopsis of the movie Grande Hotel by Lotte Stoops from the year 2010, the building is called a witness of the megalomania of the colonial regime, which was doomed to extinction.

History

Initial plans were created in the 1940s by the architect José Luís postage; 1953 Francisco de Castro took over the development. On June 17, 1955, the building was inaugurated. From 1963 to 1975, the time already officially closed hotel was still used for special occasions such as corporate parties. Also the swimming pool was still in operation and was used as a training venue for professional swimmers.

The hotel, however, was closed after an operating period of a few years as a result of the independence struggle. His basement was a prison for political prisoners, on the third floor the police and army settled. In 1981, the population around the complex; especially newcomers, the normal rent in Beira would not be able to afford, were among the occupants of the hotel. In the building, which is supplied with water or electricity, was a kind of their own village. The pool was filled with rainwater, in the wash, and fishing. An earthquake in the 2000s led to the collapse of part of the hotel. At the time, died a resident who had jumped in panic from the window. The building is considered to be in danger of collapsing; be demolished is discussed. 2011 should have been born 2000-3500 people in the remains of the hotel.

Documentation

The photographer Héctor Mediavilla documented the decline of the hotel with photographs. Already in 2006, was working on a documentary about the house with 350 rooms; 2007 expressed two former employees of the hotel in the film Night Guests by Licinio Azevedo about the past of the house. 2011 brought the Germany radio a feature about the hotel.

The tabloid published in 2012 a report from the Horror Hotel, in which detailed the conditions were described in the dilapidated building, "Through the empty elevator shaft waste claps on the floor. Most residents throw him out the window: On the first floor terrace, where once sat Bold and the Beautiful cocktails, piles up several meters of garbage, "and". Someone has begun to tear down the wooden beams of the ceiling. Bearing beams? [ ... ] No one knows when the hotel collapses and buries all the misery to themselves. "