Few people know that the Excelsior Palace Hotel, at its inauguration in 1912, was considered the most important and luxurious hotel of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The building was designed in 1910 by the Viennese architect Ladislaus Fiedler, who used ultra-modern construction techniques for the time, such as reinforced concrete. The hotel was opened to the public on June 22, 1911 on the occasion of the launch of the battleship "Viribus Unitis", the flagship of the Empire’s war fleet. The hotel welcomed, despite the lack of testing, authorities and delegations who came to Trieste to attend the San Marco Shipyard to the descent into the sea of the mighty hull. This is why the chronicles tell that the Excelsior opened its doors earlier than expected, on the same day that George V was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
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The Savoia Hotel celebrates its hundredth birthday
One hundred years old the Savoia Hotel
Inaugurated in June 1911, Francesco Giuseppe also slept there. It reopened in 2009 after the restoration
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June 23rd, 2011
Hotel Savoia turns one hundred years old
by Riccardo Tosques
It was born with the task of representing the most imposing and luxurious hotel of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now, after a century of life, it hosts at its entrance the tricolor cockade in the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy.
Time goes by and the Excelsior Palace, one of the illustrious witnesses of the city’s history that yesterday celebrated its first hundred years of life, knows something about it. Monumental, elegant, in classic Mitteleuropean style, the building was designed in 1910 by the Viennese architect Ladislaus Fiedler who used ultra-modern construction techniques for the time, such as reinforced concrete. The hotel was opened to the public on June 22, 1911 on the occasion of the launch of the battleship "Viribus Unitis", the flagship of the Empire’s war fleet. The hotel welcomed, despite the lack of testing, authorities and delegations who came to Trieste to attend the San Marco Shipyard to the descent into the sea of the mighty hull. This is why the chronicles tell that the Excelsior opened its doors earlier than expected, on the same day that George V was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
Frequented by Emperor Franz Joseph, who appreciated stays in Trieste, the Savoia has hosted in a hundred years of activity noble families, artists, diplomats, an international tourist elite who used to arrive in Trieste by sea or by land, in the tours to and from Northern Europe.
During the Second World War, it was seriously damaged by the great fire caused by cannon fire in 1945, when it was occupied by German troops. From 1972 to 1976 it was heavily revised, but it was in June 2009 – after almost three years of stop due to works – that the 4-star structure was completely reborn thanks to the restoration promoted by the hotel company Starhotels.
