THE SPANISH CO-FOUNDER OF A PROPERTY EMPIRE BEATRIZ RUBIO UNVEILS THE STUNNING RENOVATION OF HER UNIQUE FAMILY HOME ON THE PORTUGUESE COAST
PRODUCTION AND INTERVIEW: VICTORIA DE ALCAHUD PHOTOS: CESAR VILLORIA STYLING: GRACINHA VITERBO HAIR & MAKE-UP: RAQUEL PERES CLOTHES: ROSELYN SILVA JEWELLERY: CHOPARD
B eatriz Rubio is an inspiration: a woman who’s built – literally from the ground up – a property empire that employs 20,000 people and takes in every aspect of the business, from construction, sales and financing to TV makeover shows. But whenever someone praises her achievements, Bea is quick to point out: “It’s not just me. There are two of us in everything. Manuel Alvarez, my husband, is the visionary, the one with the big ideas.” Her role, she says, is to put their plans into action.
WINNING TEAM
Teenage sweethearts, the Spanish couple moved to Portugal as newlyweds. They invested all they had in their first venture, a small campsite near Lisbon that opened in the late 1990s. Among their earliest guests was a party of nuns making a pilgrimage to the famous shrine at Fátima. Whether the appreciative sisters blessed the place, as Bea and Manuel like to think, or whether they simply spread the word, their business hasn’t looked back since.
And Bea’s own energy and drive have played a part in their success. “I’m so proactive that if we decide to do something and I’m sitting down, I instinctively get up so I can run off to do it,” she says, with a laugh.
DESIGN CLASSIC
Naturally, the home the couple share with their three children – Marta, Patricia and Manolo – is a true one-off. Casal de São Roque, in the southern resort of Estoril, was built in 1902 on the site of a 17th-century Atlantic coastal fort. Although it had once belonged to sailing friends of Spain’s King Juan Carlos, the house had fallen into disrepair, and with the Covid-19 pandemic in full swing, restoration took two years. But it was worth it, Bea believes. “We love this place because, as its architect said, it brings together privacy, experience and atmosphere,” she says.
Entrepreneurship runs in Bea’s family. Her ancestors were Christians who fled the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century, settling in Bolivia, near the border with Brazil. “The old people of the area used to say that the trees that grew there were ‘golden’. And they were. They were rubber trees,” she tells us
