Maintaining the seminary has been a challenge for priests. To achieve some profitability, they started by renting parts of the building. With a privileged location in the center of Vila Real, the new hotel promises to be faithful to the seminar’s architecture.
The renovation work on the Vila Real diocesan seminary will begin in 2026 and represents an investment of seven million euros. Managed by Grupo Água Hotels, the new hotel unit will have 80 rooms and suites, a restaurant, winebar and Spa. It is explained in a statement that the hotel will be “developed in a way that preserves the historical value of the property and returns it to the city with new uses, adding cultural vitality and economic dynamism”. The agreement to provide the space between the Água Hotels Group and the Diocese was signed in 2023, and the amounts involved in the contract were not revealed.
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The original building, commissioned by D. João Evangelista de Lima Vidal, first bishop of Vila Real, opened its doors in 1930. The seminary had more than 300 students in the 60s of the last century. Then, in 1968, students also started going to Porto, to the Seminário Maior. In the 90s, around a hundred seminarians still studied in Vila Real, but currently the number is very small. Today, only three priests and an intern live in the building.
Founded in 2008, the Água Hotels is a 100% national hotel group, headquartered in the municipality of Lagoa, in the Algarve, whose activity focuses on the management and operation of hotel units and tourist developments, currently owning six hotels in Portugal and one in Cape Verde.
Tripe in sauces at Casa de Pasto Chaxoila, in Vila Real
Andre C. Macedo
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