The recently opened Four Seasons Hotel Casa Medina Bogota is the first of two Four Seasons hotels in the city places the Colombian capital.
The beautifully restored Casa Medina, a local landmark, now features hand-tooled wooden doors with wrought iron grillwork, shining parquet floors and fine woollen carpets, freshly polished panelling and majestic stone columns.
Sixty-two rooms and suites – no two alike – are reached via the original wooden staircase, which curves past bright stained glass windows depicting songbirds, a favourite motif of original architect Santiago Medina Mejia. Medellin born and Paris educated, he built Casa Medina in 1946, carefully assembling reclaimed floors, columns, paneling and ironwork to create an exclusive enclave of apartments in this fashionable area of the city. Recognised for its architectural heritage in 1984 and turned into a hotel in 1988, it soon became the chosen address for the city’s power elite to meet, and a home-away-from-home for an international who’s who.
Now, with restoration by architect Milena Vargas and original architectural details enhanced with residential-style furnishings and a collection of traditional and contemporary artwork selected by designer Lauren Rottet – plus the addition of myriad conveniences for the modern traveller – Four Seasons Hotel Casa Medina Bogota takes its place among the finest luxury hotels in the world.
Four Seasons also introduces a new destination amid the city’s vibrant culinary scene: Castanyoles Raciones y Tapas, an open concept restaurant and tapas bar designed by Saul Sasson.
Street-side see-and-be seen outdoor seating flows effortlessly into a tapas bar offering freshly brewed Colombian coffees and tapas, as well as bocatas and cocas (Catalan-style pizzas) to go. Further inside in the main restaurant, guests will find a lively environment under a glass atrium warmed by radiant heat beneath a new Spanish tile floors, plus a cosy courtyard with a large stone fireplace for chilly evenings.
Executive Chef Pablo Peñalosa, who arrived in Bogota from his hometown of Mexico City by way of Michelin-starred El Celler de Can Roca and Martin Berasategui in Spain, is adding some spice to the menu of Spanish specialties, and veteran Chef de Cuisine Lucas Curcio offers dishes learned from his Spanish grandmother. At the bar, sangrias are featured alongside the housemade gin-and-tonics that are currently so popular in Spain and Portugal. For postres, signature churros and tortes are recommended.
An array of event spaces includes the Casa Medina Room for up to 120 guests to dine or 175 for a wedding reception or business function. The elegantly refurbished El Nogal and La Merced rooms offer additional flexible meeting options.
Return guests will feel at home in the Los Rosales room, formerly Casa Medina’s restaurant and now a unique setting with restored wooden floor, original panelling, gracious stone columns and a staircase winding up to an iron-railed loft.
Four Seasons Hotel Bogota, located a short distance from Four Seasons Hotel Casa Medina Bogota in Zona T, the city’s stylish shopping and dining area, is set to open in early 2016.