Grand Hotel Igea
Liberty hotel transformed into a student residence.
Grand Hotel Igea is a former Liberty-style hotel in Erice, opened in the late 1920s and now used as accommodation for hospitality-school students.
Key facts
Site type:
Comune:
Former hotel, Student residence
Erice
District:
Historic centre
The Grand Hotel Igea was created during the early 20th-century development of Erice as a destination for seasonal visitors. Trapani merchant and philanthropist Luigi Lonero acquired a row of dilapidated houses on Via Albertina degli Abbati and transformed the site into a large hotel. Following further work and a Liberty-style refacing by craftsmen from Palermo, the Grand Hotel Igea opened around 1927–28.
The hotel became associated with Erice's interwar tourism, attracting guests from Sicilian aristocratic, cultural and political circles. Its fortunes declined after the Second World War, and it closed in the early 1960s after its manager withdrew and no successor was found. The building subsequently fell into neglect.
After passing into municipal ownership, the former hotel underwent a major restoration. Completed by 2021, the project preserved its distinctive Liberty façade while creating ten apartments, initially intended for social housing.
In November 2022, the Comune di Erice assigned accommodation within the building to the Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Ignazio e Vincenzo Florio. The former Grand Hotel now serves as a convitto, providing residential accommodation for students attending the institute's hospitality and catering courses.
Photo: Elymian Atlas
Explore further
From fashionable hotel to student residence, the Grand Hotel Igea reflects two very different periods in the modern history of Erice. Its restoration has preserved an architectural reminder of the town's early tourism while giving the building a new residential and educational role.
A grand hotel for Erice
The creation of the Igea belonged to a period when Erice was developing a reputation as a place of summer residence and retreat. Luigi Lonero's project replaced a row of deteriorated buildings with a substantial new hospitality complex, subsequently given its characteristic Liberty appearance by craftsmen brought from Palermo.
Opening around 1927–28, the Grand Hotel Igea represented a more ambitious form of accommodation than the smaller guesthouses associated with the town's earlier villeggiatura. During the interwar years it attracted members of Sicily's aristocratic, cultural and political circles and became one of the buildings associated with Erice's development as a resort.
The surviving sources do not identify an individual architect for the Liberty remodelling, so its design cannot presently be attributed more precisely.
Restoration and a new use
Plans to recover the abandoned building developed after it passed into municipal ownership. The restoration formed part of a wider programme that also included the recovery of the former San Carlo complex. By 2021, work at the Igea had created ten municipal apartments while retaining the historic Liberty façade.
The apartments were initially intended as social housing, including accommodation for younger and lower-income households. In 2022, however, units in the building were assigned to the Istituto Ignazio e Vincenzo Florio for student accommodation.
Today the former hotel forms part of the institute's Convitto, accommodating students from the surrounding area and elsewhere in the Province of Trapani. The institute's educational facilities in Erice's historic centre are based at Palazzo Sales, while additional boarding accommodation is provided at San Carlo.
The change of use creates an interesting continuity: a building originally designed to accommodate visitors to Erice once again provides temporary residence, now for students rather than hotel guests.
Sources & further reading
Explore the sources used to document the history of the Grand Hotel Igea, its restoration and its present use as student accommodation for the Istituto Ignazio e Vincenzo Florio.