History of the hotel

The initiators and investors Eva and Hartmut Schwenn searched until 1971 in all Tessin and North-Italy for a convenient piece of land in order to realize their dream of constructing a unique holiday site. They discovered and fell in love with the untouched land of Porlezza and found an free land of approx. 30'000 qm for their ambitious project.

In the first phase of the construction, which lasted until 1976, 32 comfortable holiday apartments were built. The apartments were rented with great success. Reinforced in their ideas, Eva and Hartmut Schwenn 1980 decided to go ahead with their project of unique holiday site.

Then started the administrative constraints. The negotiations went on for years and the building rules became always tuffer. In 1992 the building authorization was nearly given, but at the last minute some more studies, researches and new plans were required. Again time was going by; in order to test whether the project was respecting the severe environmental regulations, Eva and Hartmut Schwenn had to have 3 sample houses constructed in 1994. On the base of this 1:1 presentation the construction permit was finally delivered, on June 13th, 1996 with, nevertheless, the additional paragraph: "Vedi Autorizzazioni del Servizio Beni Ambientali della Regione Lombardia ..." which means, that the strict environmental regulations must be followed carefully.

On October 6th, 1997 the construction of this technically challenging project could start and already on July 30th, 1999 all was completed without any incident. At times, 150 professionals were working together on this demanding building site.

In this second construction phase, 81 new studios and suites were built as well as the reception, a bar, three restaurants, two banquet and conference rooms, a wellness area, a sport area, the park and an underground parking for 120 cars.

Today you find 80 suites and 30 apartements for overnight stay.