Grand Hotel et de Milan

The Hotel in Milan, today Grand Hotel et de Milan, was inaugurated on Saturday 23rd May 1863. The project was entrusted to the architect Andrea Pizzala, best known for having built the Galleria De Cristoforis, here in Milan, in 1831. The building was smaller than the present one. A building of eclectic style on the facade, and more precisely in its ornaments, had been used decorative references typical of the neo-Gothic repertoire. These cultured references were taken from the works published in those years, inspired by the English Romantic movement: the so-called "Gothic Revival". The building expanded several times and in 1879 a new floor was added. Towards the end of the 19th century it acquired considerable importance, as it was the only hotel in the city with postal and telegraph services and therefore frequented by diplomats and business people. It comprised about two hundred rooms, a hydraulic lift "Stigler" (recently restored and now working), a small winter garden and luxuriously furnished dining rooms.