San Pellegrino: More than an iconic beverage
By Mariella Radaelli
Only a 15-minute drive from Bergamo, the small picturesque town of San Pellegrino Terme still boasts the hot springs and stunning architecture that made it a star-studded spa capital in Europe during La Belle Epoque.
But for decades it was a shadow of its once-illustrious past. After years of isolation and a transient population, today it is ready to revive itself and rediscover its authenticity as an Art Nouveau phoenix rising from the ashes.
A pleasant walking tour reveals a series of stunning buildings in the flowing style of Art Nouveau: crisp curvilinear patterns on still-elegant facades facing the Viale Vittoria, the beautiful boulevard along the river. Residents now fully embrace the importance of Lo Stile Liberty – the Italian term for Art Nouveau – with many successful renovations in the proximity of Ponte Vecchio, which itself dates back to 1430.
But the star attraction is the Gran Casinò designed by the architect Romolo Squadrelli in the first decade of the last century and commissioned by la Società Grandi Alberghi, then headed by attorney Cesare Manzoni, the first president of S. Pellegrino water. The society also commissioned the Grand Hotel in the same years.
“In the great casino’s halls, which are decorated with exquisite taste and sparkling light, you can play, read, dance and chat, but to enter the hall’s playground, you must first belong to the Company of the Casino made of senators, deputies, governors, ambassadors and upper echelons of the army,” recorded a journalist writing in a local magazine in 1911. Gaming was shut down in 1917.
After an accurate restoration of the magnificent building, today is possible to visit the casino, with its interiors available for weddings and meetings. It feels like both a lost world and something familiar, a locale that is part and parcel of Lombardy.
San Pellegrino straddles the sparkling Brembo River, and is the headquarters for the iconic mineral water that carries its name, one of the best-selling bottled waters in the world.
Only a 15-minute drive from Bergamo, the small picturesque town of San Pellegrino Terme still boasts the hot springs and stunning architecture that made it a star-studded spa capital in Europe during La Belle Epoque.
But for decades it was a shadow of its once-illustrious past. After years of isolation and a transient population, today it is ready to revive itself and rediscover its authenticity as an Art Nouveau phoenix rising from the ashes.
A pleasant walking tour reveals a series of stunning buildings in the flowing style of Art Nouveau: crisp curvilinear patterns on still-elegant facades facing the Viale Vittoria, the beautiful boulevard along the river. Residents now fully embrace the importance of Lo Stile Liberty – the Italian term for Art Nouveau – with many successful renovations in the proximity of Ponte Vecchio, which itself dates back to 1430.
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| The Grand Hotel was once the choice of European royalty. |
“In the great casino’s halls, which are decorated with exquisite taste and sparkling light, you can play, read, dance and chat, but to enter the hall’s playground, you must first belong to the Company of the Casino made of senators, deputies, governors, ambassadors and upper echelons of the army,” recorded a journalist writing in a local magazine in 1911. Gaming was shut down in 1917.
After an accurate restoration of the magnificent building, today is possible to visit the casino, with its interiors available for weddings and meetings. It feels like both a lost world and something familiar, a locale that is part and parcel of Lombardy.
San Pellegrino straddles the sparkling Brembo River, and is the headquarters for the iconic mineral water that carries its name, one of the best-selling bottled waters in the world.
The rest of this story published on July 21 in the print and online editions of the national L'Italo-Americano newspaper based in Monrovia, California is available here (pdf).
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