Grand Hotel San Pellegrino

A local priest branded the casino, thermal baths and Grand Hotel San Pellegrino the “triangle of perdition,” which turned out to be the best marketing campaign wealthy Europeans had ever heard. Built between 1901 and 1906, the trio transformed a quiet mountain town into a glittering Belle Époque playground where aristocrats took the waters by day and gambled by night. The Grand Hotel opened in summer 1904 with 250 rooms, each outfitted with elevators, electricity, drinking water and telephones – technology so cutting-edge it impressed even the nobility who stayed there.

Architect Romolo Squadrelli and engineer Luigi Mazzocchi designed the Art Nouveau landmark with a 128-meter facade crowded with statues, caryatids, putti, festoons and animal-shaped ornaments. Inside, a monumental staircase was lined with Carrara marble. Queen Margherita of Savoy stayed at the hotel during its formal inauguration in 1905 and called it one of the most elegant and modern hotels of its time. By the 1960s, its guest list had shifted from royalty to athletes, hosting Inter Milan and the Italian national football team for training camps.

The Grand Hotel closed in 1979 as the cost of maintaining its monumental structure became increasingly difficult to justify. In 2024, the town selected California-based EKN Development to oversee its conversion into a luxury resort. The triangle of perdition, it seems, still has a few more sins left to sell.