Grand Hotel Architecture as Depicted, Photographed, and Filmed in the Case of the CIGA: Compagnia Italiana dei Grandi Alberghi, in Comunicar La Arquitectura del origen de la modernidad a la era digital, tomo I, eug, Granada, 2024, pp. 349-360

Univercidad de Granada

The first luxury hotel chain in Italy was established in Venice in 1906 under the name Compagnia Italiana dei Grandi Alberghi (CIGA). The company collected a series of pre-existing prestigious Venetian hotels located in historic buildings including the famous Hotel Danieli; later, the company acquired other grand hotels in major Italian cities. The CIGA entrusted the finest typographers to print highly refined advertisements for luggage labels, postcards, and brochures. Many Neapolitan artists collaborated, which was perhaps suggested by the then-managing director from Naples. The extremely valuable CIGA hotel architecture is documented not only by painters and illustrators but also by photographers and film directors who shot their movies in the CIGA hotels after the bankruptcy in 1995. Even though the erstwhile CIGA hotels have been acquired by other companies, the splendor of the architectural value and quality created by the CIGA remains till date.