DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE
Grand Hotel Duchi d ’ Aosta - EGIDIO PANZERA ARCHITECT -
The Grand Hotel Duchi d ’ Aosta , built in 1873 , stands in an area that has an ancient history and an equally ancient vocation for hospitality . A history that began in the 14th century with the Hospitium Magnum , a private hotel with stabling , which then became the Osteria del Dazio , then the Locanda Grande , up to the more recent Hotel Vanoli and , finally , today ’ s Grand Hotel Duchi d ’ Aosta . Illustrious guests , famous personalities and nobles of the highest rank stayed in its rooms in the 17th century : Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria , bride of Cosimo de ’ Medici , Grand Duke of Tuscany ( 1608 ), the infanta Maria of Spain , bride of Ferdinand I ( 1631 ), Federico Gonzaga , Duke of Mantua ( 1662 ) and Admiral Orazio Nelson , Lady Hamilton , Queen Maria Carolina of Naples , the archaeologist Giovanni Gioacchino Winckelmann ,
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