The station hotel

It was in September 1886 that the railway finally made it to Chiavenna and the same year that the couple Matteo Vanossi and Rosa del Curto decided to construct the Helvetia&Spécola Hotel. The first part of the name clearly refers to the intention – at that time – to continue the railway line to St Moritz, thus connecting to the main European network; the second is a reference to the central tower, almost a lookout spot with views over the whole town, which can still be seen centrally at the top of the building, white in colour and quite a feature of no. 13 Corso Garibaldi in Chiavenna.

La Spécola was designed by Giuseppe Vanossi, Matteo’s brother and railway engineer, author of any number of public works and restorations in the valley, as well as some notably bold railway projects through the Settimo, Spluga and Maloja passes. Matteo himself was a pupil of the artist Francesco Hayez in Brera and left paintings of a religious and classical inspiration. Both were sons of Antonio, known for having realised the spinning of asbestos on an industrial scale, later taken up by his fellow Chiavenasca Candida Lena-Perpenti. The Helvetia&Spécola Hotel had 17 rooms, a crude ice-store in the cellar, a laundry, in addition to the square at the rear for carriages and a garden towards the railway tracks themselves. Performances from visiting theatrical companies would be staged here.

A few years after its opening the Hotel passed into the hands of De Giambattista: Antonio and then his son Matteo. This was the beginning of its demise: the hotel was closed and partly used by local schools, whilst other parts were rented to private individuals. In 1942 the complex was purchased by the spouses Giuseppe Giuriani and Rosa Buzzetti, only to be requisitioned the following year by the fascist militia who turned it into a barracks, clearing out the school and relegating the owners to just a few rooms within. But a mere two years later, after the Liberation of 1945, the building returned to Giuriani who let the ground floor to INAM (the National Institute for Health Insurance) and in the last decades of the 1900’s was a State monopoly department store. Currently the ground floor is occupied by La Spécola wine merchants. Fortunately, following the destruction of the so-called Station Hotel that hid it from view, La Spécola, a fine example of late 19th C. architecture, is to the fore once again. A feature which does much to enhance a genuinely appreciated corner of the town. 
 
Pasta e Delizie