San Pellegrino Terme - The Casino
A magnificent example of the Liberty style (Italian Art Nouveau), the Casino of San Pellegrino Terme was built at the beginning of the 20th century, between 1904 and 1906, and opened in July 1907. Designed by the architect Romolo Squadrelli as a continuation of the porticoes of the Thermal Spring, it has an imposing yet graceful façade, rich in stucco, friezes and bas-reliefs by the sculptor Paolo Croce.
The fantastic façade, decorated with high reliefs in artificial stone, allegorical groups, grotesque masks, anthropomorphic elements, human busts, putti, abundant floral motifs and artistic iron lanterns, rises up to Mazzucotelli's great wrought-iron flagpole, supported by telamons, symbols of human toil; at its base are frescoed the flying stag beetles which, like butterflies, symbolise Art Nouveau.
The teamwork that saw Squadrelli collaborate with leading artists of the day also bore fruit inside, where, in an allegorical play of references to the place and to the properties of its waters, the theme of 'joie de vivre' is developed in Malerba's frescoes, Bernasconi's reliefs, Vedani's sculptures, the beautiful stained glass by Beltrami and Buffa and, finally, the furnishings, designed entirely by Eugenio Quarti.
Of particular interest is the façade with its two tall towers, recalling Charles Garnier's earlier Monte Carlo Casino; the rich decoration with its strong symbolic charge includes, among other things, Alessandro Mazzucotelli's wrought-iron lamp holders and flagpole, the high reliefs beside the central door in terracotta-finished concrete with Bacchic scenes by Giulio Croce, and the painted frieze with the flying stag beetle motif, generally attributed to Francesco Malerba.
Together with the Spa and the Grand Hotel, from the early 1900s the Casino helped create an effective centre of attraction for the many wealthy guests who found ample opportunities for leisure and entertainment in San Pellegrino. It was a 'fairy-tale' world, populated by queens and princesses, ministers and diplomats, leading figures in finance, the army, the arts and culture, from Rome, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, St Petersburg, London and Cairo.
Closed and reopened several times, in the context of various schemes aimed on the one hand at regulating gambling and on the other at promoting Italy's spa and health resorts, it finally ceased operating in 1946.
The magnificent Casino building remains to this day an unrivalled testimony to the compositional imagination of the complex, the elegance of its architecture and the inventiveness of its decoration (by Comune di San Pellegrino Terme).