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Facilities:
Hall, breakfast rooms and
bar.
Drawing rooms with fireplace.
Garden, parking and garages.
Conference hall available for 50 people max. Just outside
the Hotel, two minute walk.
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 At the beginning of the XIVth
century, the Chiesa della Madonna
degli Alemanni,
a very
ancient church with an underneath oratory, was standing on
the very spot of the hotel. The church was on the present
hall floor,
while the oratory was on the lower floor. The
two structures were connected by a staircase which is still
linking the two floors.
In the origin, the church was a place of cult and devotion:
people went there to worship a miraculous simulacrum
representing the Virgin's bust with the Child (Madonna della
Manna). It is a XIVth century terracotta which is actually
on display in the Duomo di Cortona. The church was decorated
with remarkable works of art; besides the above mentioned
terracotta, there was a big picture representing Our Lady of
the Assumption. This painting, which was attributed to
Andrea del Sarto, is now stored in the choir of the Duomo di
Cortona. There was also a wooden crucifix, by F. Fabbrucci,
with its finely carved case which is today housed in the
Chiesa dello Spirito Santo in Cortona. The cult of the
Madonna degli Alemanni was so widespread and deeply felt
that the church proved to be too narrow to host its devotees.
 The church was thus knocked down in 1730 and a new, bigger
one was erected in
its stead. It was decorated with stuccoes
and
frescoes whose main
remains
is a Madonna with S. Andrea
Avellino, by the artist F. Fabbrucci from Corstona (XVIIIth
century). Among the original church's remains, two gothic
capitals and two frescoes are particularly worth mentioning.
They are now housed in the Istituto delle Suore Serve di
Maria Riparatrici, in Via G. Severini, just opposite the
hotel. The first fresco, from Bartolomeo della Gatta's
school (XVth century), where the Virgin with the Child is
painted on a tile just in front of an oak, is generally
known as "Madonna della Quercia" (The Oak's Virgin)
The second fresco, whose author is still unknown, represents
Giobbe and is dated 1504. On the 8th of October 1741, a
solemn ceremony took place in the Duomo di Cortona to pay homage to the image of the Madonna degli Alemanni and the
Child. Later on, the demolition of many small
churches was
ordered by the Archduke Leopoldo di Toscana. The church of
the Madonna degli Alemanni was thus knocked down in 1786. In
its stead, a gentleman's residence was built (Villa Marsili)
looking about the same as the present hotel. |
Cortona
is a small town in Tuscany, Italy. It is famous as the base
for some scenes in Roberto Benigni's film Life is Beautiful,
in Italian La Vita è bella. It is also famous as the setting
for the 2004 film Under the Tuscan Sun whose author Frances
Mayes maintains a home in Cortona. In 2003, a live concert
by André Rieu and his "Johann Strauss Orchestra" in the
Piazza Della Republica was filmed and later broadcast in the
United States on the PBS television network.