Terrazzino Reale

Terrazzino Reale, Hotel Executive Firenze
Located on Via Curtatone between the ‘Lungarni’ roads running alongside the Arno River and Santa Maria Novella, with a view of Borgo Ognissanti street, Hotel Executive is an elegant 4-star hotel, which is also easily accessible by car. The two buildings that make up the hotel complex are rare examples of eclectic 19th-century style, each with its own story and personality, linked to the historical events of the city.
Thanks to recent renovation work, the loggia building that was previously called the ‘Terrazzino Reale sul Prato’, now houses luxurious rooms and suites, with their own individual character and unique charm. The sensitivity in researching and restoring the intimacy that once defined the ancient Florentine noble residence now enriches the valuable original finishes with a renewed sense of classicism, from the tall wooden doors and precious marble fireplaces to the large mirrors adorned with gold leaf frames, and to the selection of antique furniture, period paintings and prints, exquisite tapestries and fine fabrics.
Together with the hospitality and kindness of the staff, top quality service and state-of-the-art technology complete the experience of an ideal stay in an ideal city.

The history of Terrazzino Reale, Hotel Executive Firenze
The 19th-century neo-Classical loggia-style building was originally called Terrazzino Reale sul Prato, a royal stand made of wood assembled for the Grand Duke of Lorena at the point where the road leading to Porta al Prato and the Cascine Park formed an obtuse angle, allowing spectators a wide view. This grandstand accommodated the grand duke’s court on occasion of the Berber horse race, a historic event cited by Dante in his Divine Comedy, which took place to celebrate important historical events, victories, military successes, or important religious anniversaries.
The ceremony that inaugurated the celebration of the races included the awarding of the Palio, a drapery made of precious fabrics, and the presentation of the horses by the Grand Duke. Seated at the Loggia of the Terrazzino Reale, which was always sumptuously decorated with draperies and hangings for the occasion, he would duly give the starting signal as well as announcing the name of the winning horse here, thereby proclaiming the start of the popular festivities that followed.
After the transformation of the monumental Cascine Park by the Grand Duke into a public park and the construction of the Lungarno Nuovo (today renamed Lungarno Vespucci) stretching as far as the Porticciola di Ognissanti, which was located right next to the building, facing the Arno, Grand Duke Ferdinando III decided to transform the wooden Terrace into a masonry structure in 1819. He commissioned architect Luigi Cambray Digny, who was very much in vogue in Florence at the time and who was already working on various projects there, including the romantic park of the Torrigiani Garden. It was indeed thanks to Cambray Digny’s eclectic and neo-Classical taste and the engineering skills of his assistant Giuseppe Martelli (who had learned new avant-garde construction techniques in France), that the Loggia, whose construction took several years until it was finished in 1829, was deemed to be an architectural masterpiece.
The ceilings of the large hall overlooking the Loggia, which is today the bedroom of the luxurious Granduca Suite, were frescoed by painter Luigi Ademollo, who was invited to Florence by Grand Duke Ferdinando III and his wife, Grand Duchess Elisa, for the decoration of Palazzo Pitti. In fact, the same lavish style that the Lorraine family aimed to revive in order to restore their prestige during the Restoration, following the French occupation of the city, are clearly evidenced in the frescoes depicting mythological scenes and precious friezes which are still preserved in the elegant Suite today.