On the left bank of the Gilão River, in the historic centre of Tavira, Fragmentos has rehabilitated and extended the former Palácio dos Tavares, transforming it into a five-star hotel that combines heritage, contemporary design and local identity. Built between the 18th and 19th centuries, the Palace is one of the city's architectural landmarks and a symbol of its aristocratic past. After decades in ruins, the intervention restores its urban and functional prominence, pairing the recovery of the Palace with a new wing, the Medina, inspired by Moorish tradition and the vernacular architecture of the eastern Algarve.
Work on the Palace focused on structural rehabilitation and on conserving its defining features, the scale and nobility of the façades, the stonework, ceramic and wrought-iron details, and the 18th-century stone staircase, fully restored, while its interiors were reorganised for the hotel programme.
Rising in the Palace courtyard, the Medina is a fragmented, organic composition of interconnected volumes in dialogue with the Palace's classical architecture. It unfolds through courtyards, passages, stairways and terraces that reinterpret the açoteias and Moorish urban fabric of the eastern Algarve, generating unexpected routes and views. An open internal street threads through the different levels, giving direct access to each of the hotel's 36 rooms — no two of them alike — while light and shadow are carefully choreographed so the two architectures hold together as a single composition.
Discover the project: https://www.fragmentos.pt/en/projects/palacio-de-tavira
