Current name: Grand Hotel Castrocaro
Original name: Grand Hotel delle Terme

City: Castrocaro Terme e Terre del Sole (FC)
District: urban area
Address: viale Guglielmo Marconi, n.14/16

Year of construction: 1939 – 1943
Designer: art director Tito Chini, designer Eng. Diego Corsani
Client: Ispettorato Generale delle Aziende Patrimoniali dello Stato, Ufficio Tecnico Centrale del Demanio
Architectural style: Modernism with very strong references to Rationalism

Visiting interior: partly yes
Significant elements: The building is listed by the Committee as a cultural property. Ceramic and marble decorations. Entrances facing the street and the thermal baths’ park; loggia terrace facing the park. Reception hall, central staircase. Light devices by the Venini company (Murano, Venice)

In Castrocaro, the therapeutic use of waters and mud baths boasts ancient origins. On June 1st, 1851, the first thermal establishment officially opened, and it was placed in an already existing building that was readapted according to hygienic and typological criteria considered innovative at the time. The first centre of the current establishment was built only thanks to 1884. The financial disaster and the preponderance of shares held by the INA (National Insurance Institute) led the government to liquidate the Società delle Terme, still private owned (Royal Decree, Law no. 1665 of 09/07/1936), and to proceed with the statehood of the assets constituting the Castrocaro Thermal Baths Company. The Ispettorato Generale delle Aziende Patrimoniali dello Stato (General Inspectorate of State Property Agencies), although it had entrusted the design of the New Thermal Baths Complex to the Central Technical Office of the State Property, in the person of Chief Engineer Diego Corsani, considered it advisable to match the technical figure with an artistic consultant, who could deal specifically with the internal and external decorations, the fitting out and furnishing of the newly built premises, with particular attention to the direction of the architectural part. It was chosen Tito Chini, artistic director of the Chini Furnaces in Borgo San Lorenzo (Florence). The government plan that was promptly drawn up (1936-1937) envisaged the construction of three buildings: the Bathing Establishment, the Grand Hotel, and the Amusement Hall.

An official visit to the building site by Benito Mussolini took place in June 1939. On which occasion he decided to double the size of the park and transform the Thermal Baths Pension into a luxurious Grand Hotel. The Grand Hotel was already planned to consist of two wings arranged in an L-shape, the shorter of which was at a tangent to the Thermal Establishment, and the longer one, which ended in a semi-circular shape, adhering to the Strada Nazionale, forming a true urban backdrop. In November 1939, with the additional title of ‘Artistic Consultant of the Forlì Property Valuation Office’, Tito Chini imposed new designs and modifications on the original Grand Hotel project of 1937: in particular, an additional floor was added to the building, the splendid terrace-loggia overlooking the park, the water tower, and the design of a new corner header with entrance, positioned at the crossroads of Via Nazionale and Via Conti (at the time known as Via Del Ponte).

The construction of the new building, which began in 1939 amidst numerous difficulties due to the conditions of the foundation soil, excessively clay-rich and saturated with water, resumed at the beginning of 1940 and with the use of materials that were already employed in the now completed Festival Halls and Baths Establishment: travertine and terracotta from local kilns, traditional building systems, reinforced concrete when strictly necessary. The differentiation of the façades was resolved by the use of chrome and ceramic cladding towards the park (east façade), and of a more monumental type towards the pre-existing urban building, in contrast with Palazzo Piancastelli, also restored and modernised by Chini himself in those years. The construction continued until the last months of 1943, when the events of the war forced a halt to the works in progress, resulting in the dismissal of all the workers and Chini himself. At that time, the outer shell of the Grand Hotel had been defined, as well as the representative rooms on the ground floor necessary for the Regime, the ‘special’ flat for the Head of the Government (on the third floor), and some rooms on the first level, among the 160 potential ones.

Of the original fittings, and in particular of what had been planned for the special flat for the Head of Government (referred to as the “Ammobiliamento Duse”), there remain some images and the detailed project reports by Chini himself, in which all details and relative provenances were noted down. From the Venini company of Murano (Venice), already extensively honoured in the Festival Hall, came the basket chandeliers, table lamps, ashtrays, and glassware. The colours of the flat ranged from the dark green of the felt floor in the entrance hall to the pale blue of the tableware underlays, the jade green of the crystals of the toilette set, the sage green, salmon and dark brown of the ornaments. The paintings hanging on the walls included several sacred prints, two prints by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, fresco decorations and some paintings by Chini himself.