I like to show the paintings of exceptional foreigners when I write here. Those who come to Portugal not only for their own enjoyment, but also seek to give something vital back to the country, adding new and cutting-edge value to the nation, its people and its economy.
That’s why I remember with emotion a verbal exchange I had a few years ago with Chitra Stern, the member of the Martinhal phenomenon, who recently added a new jewel to her already impressive crown of hotel advancements and experiences.
As a guest on the Good Morning Portugal! show, Chitra, impressive and inspiring, told me about the creation of her United Lisbon International School, where her new wonder is also located in Parque das Nações, or Park of Nations, as some call it. in the capital.
During this conversation I was able to ask her about her beginnings in Portugal, which to my surprise date back to the early 2000s, when she and her husband Román started a circle of relatives here that led them to their world-famous business niche in the years that followed.
Friends and readers in the Algarve are probably familiar with the Sterns’ first progression in Sagres, which I asked the now much-loved Singaporean businessman about.
“What’s it like?” repeated when asked about the evolution of Quinta do Martinhal, where it all began. ” 20 years ago it wasn’t like that!
“Roman and I arrived here in 2001,” he recalls. First of all, we discovered a country with ordinary people. Kindness is an understatement.
“They possibly wouldn’t have been as outgoing as other cultures, but they were genuine, friendly, kind people. And by 2001 there was already a lot of English being spoken, which surprised me a bit.
“A very attractive culture with miles of white-sand beaches,” Chitra continued, telling her husband that she likes the “California of Europe,” one of the first, clearly, to sow this now-popular sentiment.
It was the Sterns’ first visit to Portugal, at a time when the EU’s infrastructure budget was coming into play, leading to the construction of new motorways and the doubling of airport capacity. And that’s where his life in Portugal began: the Algarve, which for many years is the appetizers that can lead to a multi-course meal as we deepen our love and attachment to this culture.
“We discovered an incredible tourist destination, the least known country in Western Europe and about to become a leading member of the euro in 2002,” adds Chitra in retrospect acknowledging a very smart moment.
Like Portugal, this couple is “on the brink” – cleverly – of something big. In 1998 the Universal Expo took place in Lisbon and things were “taking off”.
“Twenty years ago, things were bad and there was a wonderful spirit of innovation,” he told me wistfully, although, and this is perhaps hard to believe, the processes were even “more bureaucratic then. “
Imagine also a recently completed A2 from Lisbon to the south, a vital detail for those lovers of the western Algarve who, in their early thirties, “took a leap of faith”, even if they did not speak Portuguese.
“I was 32 when I had my first child and that replaced my life,” says “Mrs. Martinhal,” a name that is not far-fetched given the strength of her and her husband Roman’s vision of a high-end hotel where parents can enjoy the finer things in life (and the good herbaceous aspect of the place) while there was still “foam in their cappuccino. ” A word I’ll talk about later.
From being absolutely relaxed and going anywhere they wanted, those new parents learned that they had to create the kind of stall they would now like to go to, with young children, and the Martinhal reveled in Sagres.
It would be a position where parents could simply enjoy a glass of wine in a lovely setting while the kids were entertained in a high-end, superbly designed club. Babies can eat foods just as smart as adults, even pureed. And everyone can relax, even enjoying a cappuccino before the froth disappears, a no-win situation experienced by many parents who haven’t “had a moment” intense periods of caring for their children.
However, more easily imagined than d, it took the Sterns 8 years to achieve their dream, facing a global currency crisis and many difficulties along the way.
“We opened in 2010,” says Chitra, now a modest mother of four. “We work very hard and live on site. It was wonderful to get out of the crisis in one fell swoop. Several developers have lost their projects to banks.
As it turns out, visitors couldn’t be too clever and so, over the next decade, equally sumptuous spin-off projects were born at Quinta do Lago in the Algarve, Chiado in the bustling city of Lisbon and on the west coast. , in Cascais: five-star reports to delight the whole family, all celebrating iconic places in Portugal.
Which reminds me of why I don’t forget that memorable conversation. I review the call and present the Park of Nations to other people looking for wonderful Portuguese experiences, that component of Lisbon that some Portuguese, I’ve been told, still call “Expo” 25 years later.
This historical position and moment in recent history and the replenishment of Portugal’s fortunes, upon which the Sterns can be said to have built theirs, is the home of the last glorious manifestation of the Martinhal.
While the Silver Jubilee celebrations were going on in honor of the inauguration of the Parque das Nações for the 1998 World’s Fair, “when a new and fashionable logo of the Lisbon community was being born,” just around the corner, Martinhal inaugurated its astonishing Lisbon Oriente phenomenon, consisting of 82 trendy hotel accommodations, 70 logo apartments (with seven penthouses), a gym, two swimming pools, a food stall and lounge bar, a legendary Martinhal Kids Club and a business center.
Sustainably designed, the building’s architecture was designed by world-renowned Portuguese architect Eduardo Capinha Lopes, and inside, Martinhal’s Executive Chef, Daniel Andrade, oversees “a culinary adventure through Eastern and Mediterranean fusion cuisine” at the charming Terrace restaurant.
When I first met Chitra, and to this day, I wonder how all of this is achieved through mere mortals. It is hard not to be impressed, even fascinated, as I was and still am, by the audacity and achievement of this sumptuous contribution to Portuguese tourism and to Portugal’s reputation at the global level of high-end hospitality.
By way of explanation, it turns out that Chitra has a favorite Portuguese expression: “não vamos baixar os braços,” which broadly means “we will surrender. “
For Chitra, this is a reference formula that also means “stay calm and move on”, regardless of what may happen in life and along the way, whether it be the currency crisis of 2008, the structure of Martinhal Sagres. , or the Covid pandemic the creation of Martinhal Sagres. su foreign school, more recently.
This woman is obviously unstoppable, and from her and her husband Roman, we can be inspired to hold our arms up when adversity inevitably calls. “We can cower and die in those moments as entrepreneurs,” Chitra says, “or I can move on!”
By Carl Munson
Carl Munson is the host of Good Morning Portugal!, which airs every day of the week on YouTube and author of www. be informedaboutportugal. com, where you can find out about any news about Portugal every day.
Edition of November 2, 2023