History - The first half of XX century
Article Index
The former garden of the aristocracy was radically changing, year after year, to the neighbourhood of the new Palermo bourgeoisie, which was claiming its role in this tiny area between the baroque city of the aristocracy and the countryside, where noble families had their summer houses.
It was like this that the area where the hotel rises became an experimental workshop for Art Nouveau, the architectural language the new riches chose to tell their rise. Palaces, villas, kiosks and theatres surrounding the hotel were the new symbols of this vanguard Palermo: the Kursal Biondo, the Ribaudo kiosk near the Politeama theatre, Villino Favaloro, Casa Gregorietti, Palazzo Paladino, Palazzo Dato, Palazzo Failla and Villino Ida, represented Palermo as a European capital together with Paris and Vienna. It was the Palermo of the Ducrot factories and of the Florio family.
