Polana Hotel

Maputo [Lourenço Marques], Maputo, Mozambique

Equipment and Infrastructures

Located on António Enes /Julius Nyerere Avenue no. 1380, dating from 1922, this is a magnificent building, with a view over the Indian Ocean in neo-classical model by (as far as we know) Walter Reid (1866-1947). It was built “in the Palatial style”, and must have had a plan by this architect, working in Johannesburg (brother of colleague Arthur Henry Reid, who also worked there), and belonging to the group of British architects settled in South Africa which included the well-known Herbert Baker (1862-1946, designer of the famous government buildings in Pretoria and New Delhi, and who is also credited with the design of the Polana by some authors). It was built by engineer Hugo Le May, on the initiative of the Delagoa Bay Lands Syndicate, in 1917-1922.