THE HOTEL

At first it’s the light that enchants. The ever - changing moods of sun, clouds and water by day, a moonlight path traced across the lagoon by night. After the light comes the warmth. It too filters inside from the sunny Riva promenade. It’s how we have welcomed guests for more than a century and a half. With the light, with the warmth, comes Venice itself. You do not leave the city when you step inside the Londra Palace. You enter a cultured, stylish, welcoming Venetian home.

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1853

The Hotel d'Angleterre and Pension opens its doors on Venice's elegant promenade, the Riva degli Schiavoni, in response to the growing demand for accommodation due to the recent rail link with the mainland.

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1865

Designed by Venetian engineer Giovanni Fuin in Neo-Lombardesque style, the luxurious Hotel Beau Rivage is inaugurated next door. The two hotels are separated by a narrow passageway.

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1877

In December, Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky stays at the Beau Rivage while working on his Fourth Symphony, which he describes in a letter to his brother Modest as “undoubtedly the best that I have written”. Our Junior Suite 106 is dedicated to his memory.

“I think, I dream, I read, I remember – in a word, I rest”

Peter Tchaikovsky, Christmas Day 1877
writing from the Hotel Londra Palace
(then called the Beau Rivage)

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1884

Travelling incognito, Jules Verne arrives at the Hotel d’Angleterre in July for a two-night stay. But the secret is soon out. The city lays on a firework display for the illustrious French writer, and the hotel spells out his name in candles on its façade. The Londra Palace’s Suite Jules Verne pays homage to the spirit of this great man.

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1900

The Hotels Angleterre and Beau Rivage are finally linked to create the “hotel with a hundred windows” that takes the name of Hotel Londres et Beau Rivage.

1920s

Foreign words and place names are no longer viewed with approval in Mussolini’s Italy – so the hotel briefly changes its name to ‘Albergo Bella Riva’.

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1950s

The hotel takes on its current exterior appearance after work on the upper storeys that finally give its two wings a unified roofline.

1973

The Hotel Londres et Beau Rivage becomes the Londra Palace.

1992 - 2000

A major refurbishment will slowly yet steadily transform the Londra Palace into the stylish luxury hotel we see today. Along the way, bedrooms are enlarged and reduced in number from 73 to 52 – one for each week of the year.

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2001

Alain Bullo begins working at a hotel that is part of his family history. In 2011, he becomes General Manager. Alain’s father Aldo worked here for 56 years, for most of that time as Head Concierge. He met Alain’s French mother when she was a guest at the hotel: it was love at first sight.

2012

The Londra Palace becomes a Relais & Chateaux hotel.

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