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Description
History
In the year 1860, there was great excitement in Venice for the opening of a new hotel on Riva degli Schiavoni, just a few steps from Piazza San Marco: the grand five star Beau Rivage. It had been designed by Fuin, a famous Venetian engineer of the period, in neo-lombard style with white marble from Istria. It was built next to Hotel d'Angleterre et Pension, which had been built seven years before by an architect named Rossini.One next to the other, the two Hotels were predestined to become one in the year 1900 with a new name: Hotel Londres et Beau Rivage, the two Hotels were latter connected by a central part that brought the number of the windows on the Lagoon to one hundred.During the years of fascism the name became Albergo Bella Riva due to the dislike for foreign names. At the end of those years renamed again as Hotel Londres & Beau Rivage until 1973, when eventually became the actual Hotel Londra Palace. A journal of the period wrote that Gabriele D'Annunzio, in times of dire straits, instead of going to a near Hotel, used to be profoundly satisfied to go to the elegant Beau Rivage; and this is what he did in the autumn of 1894 for the inauguration of a monument dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II. The same familiarity and elegance, without forgetting the evocative view on the Lagoon and on the island of San Giorgio, accompanied by the typical Venetian spleen, inspired the Russian composer Ciajkovskij the first three movements of his Fourth Symphony, which he first called "Do Leoni", in honour of the lion of San Marco and of the English rampart one. This was a masterpiece, which he composed in Room 106, as the pictures and souvenirs left to the Hotel by the Russian government witness. It is a room full of history and emotions emotions bringing some of our guests state that they were waken up in the middle of the night, by a weak light and a barely noticeable music. Could this be true or is it fantasy?
