The Grand Hotel Duchi D'Aosta, erected in
1873, stands on an area that has an ancient history and an equally remote vocation: that of the management of local hotels and catering. The story began in
1300 with the
Hospitium Magnum, a private hotel with stables, adjacent to the Inn of Customs Duty (or Port).
Among the distinguished guests of the hotel in the seventeenth century were: the Archduchess
Maria Maddalena of Austria, wife of
Cosimo de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1608); the Infanta Maria of Spain, wife of
Ferdinand I (1631);
Federico Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (1662).
In
1727, in the area of those two buildings, the city erected the
Osteria Grande, at its own expense, which was restored in
1765 and elevated ("because there was the prospect of the arrival of a prince"), so it took the new name of
Locanda Grande. In fact it gave hospitality to famous people and nobles of the highest rank, such as Admiral
Horatio Nelson,
Lady Hamilton,
Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, the archaeologist
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the
Emperors Joseph II and Leopold II,
Giacomo Casanova,
Carlo Goldoni,
Joachim Murat and Prince Bernadotte.
But the fervor of building renewal that permeated the city from the first half of the 1800's could not exclude Piazza Grande. In particular, in
1847 a decision was made to demolish the Locanda Grande, creating a void that would not be filled until 1872.
It seems that this decision was made in the desire to erase the memory of a tragic event that took place there in
1768: the killing of the archaeologist Winckelmann by Francesco Arcangeli, a sailor born in Pistoia.
However, the void, "strongly deplored" by the city authorities, led Assicurazioni Generali, co-owners of the area, to enlist the engineers
Eugenio Geiringer and Giovanni Righetti to construct a new hotel, which was completed in
1873 and named
Hotel Garni, renowned for "elegance, cleanliness, great service and reasonable prices."
The
eclectic facade, which remained unchanged since then but restored to its original splendor by a recent refurbishment, is decorated with Corinthian pilasters, floral friezes and, at the top, by a columnar balustrade (in the central part of which appears the construction date) surmounted by
two statues, one depicting
Trieste, the other
Mercury, god of commerce.
In
1908 the name changed again to
Hotel Vanoli, which it maintained until
1973, when with the change of ownership and management it finally took the name of
Grand Hotel Duchi d'Aosta. The hotel, despite the inevitable increase in the level of comfort required to meet the most sophisticated needs of international guests, retains a distinctive middle European style, which makes it unique, elegant, refined and familiar at the same time, embellished by valuable furnishings (antique pieces, carpets, draperies, paintings and graphics, the Vienna chairs and the majestic bar countertop, perfect copies of the ones in
Harry's Bar in Venice).
Grand Hotel Duchi d'Aosta
Piazza Unità d'Italia, n° 2/1 - 34121 Trieste
Tel: +39 040 7600011
Fax: +39 040 366092
https://duchidaosta.com/it/
reservations@duchidaosta.com
