Inside a Historic Palace Turned Boutique Hotel in Italy

At times, the research process for Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva’s latest hotel project in Orvieto, Italy, might have felt more like an archaeological expedition. Local hotelier Raffaele Tysserand commissioned the Naples-based founder of his namesake firm to renovate and transform a 15th-century palace in the small Umbrian town into a history-inspired boutique hotel. To get a feel for the place and its past, architect and client took to the surrounding streets. 

“We ventured almost stealthily into old noble buildings, discovering within them elegant gardens,” recalls dell’Uva. “When I saw the hotel building for the first time I was fascinated. It was a challenge that suited my nature.” The location is quite incredible as well: adjacent to the bluff-top city’s 14th-century Duomo di Orvieto, its architecture supporting an intricate facade of narrow, horizontal bands in alternating white travertine and black basalt. These defining stripes served as the inspirational basis for dell’Uva’s playful yet sensitive concept for the newly inaugurated hospitality property, the nine-key Palazzo Petrvs. 

Designers Look to the Past to Create a Timeless Hotel

The former private home, once owned by and named for the wealthy notary Petrvs Facienus, had long been abandoned. However, when dell’Uva began to peel back its prior 19th-century renovations, the three-story, 16,000-square-foot interiors revealed original frescos and Renaissance-era painted wood ceilings. Tysserand requested a place that would “offer guests the feeling of a contemporary grand tour experience”—luxurious, comfortable, well-appointed spaces that “didn’t alter the original context,” dell’Uva notes, so he returned its rooms to their original proportions and called in a team of artisans to restore the historic detailing. Where frescoes were not discovered, the architect plastered the walls in a natural clay finish and laid terra-cotta floors, both allusions to the city’s Etruscan heritage and continued artisan culture. The natural color of these materials provides a soft, warm palette off which the custom and vintage Italian and Nordic furnishings can riff. 

Thus, a studied exercise in contrast drives the environment. At the center of the large lobby, the original, massive stone fireplace is a visual cue for dell’Uva’s blocky, double-sided sofa, upholstered in a forest green fabric and color-matched by a pair of fringed Hans-Agne Jakobsson table lamps from 1950 that perch atop its frame. Dynamically contemporary brass-and-glass sconces flank the hearth. In one corner is a purpose-built dining table with a black-and-white striped base and Hans Wegner seating; in another is a Marco Zanuso armchair and a Carlo Scarpa console, both vintage. 

How Palazzo Petrvs’s Interiors Reference a Local Landmark

Most of the guest rooms also have a striped detail, if not a focal point, that ties the interiors back to the cathedral—so close by that it is visible through some of the hotel windows. In one room, there’s an en-suite bathtub constructed of bands of terra-cotta painted black and white. It sits under a decoratively painted coffered ceiling that dates from 1500. In another, a custom bed features a headboard and skirt made with striped linen. In yet another, as well as in the standout stair that leads to the large suite located in the property’s ancient tower, the entire floor sports the pattern, laid in locally handmade terra-cotta tiles. “The architecture of the duomo goes beyond the stylistic elements imposed by Italian Gothic, with dichromatic horizontal lines that—rather than soaring—convey a sense of balance and unexpected contemporaneity,” dell’Uva explains. “I wanted to bring the same to the project.” 

The only non-striped space is Coro, the hotel restaurant, which is built inside the historic shell of a former church that adjoins the main building. “From my perspective, an old, deconsecrated church needs simple, solemn, and sophisticated furnishings,” continues dell’Uva, who chose to restore the structure with a deep appreciation for its architecture. He left its stacked stone walls largely bare, aside from a selection of works by Milanese artist Michele Guido. Spindly wrought-iron candelabras hang over the recycled-wood tables, upholstered benches, and more Wegner chairs.

Modern Amenities Include Spalike Bathrooms and a Courtyard

“The biggest challenge was ensuring that the changes did not affect the magic of the place,” dell’Uva elaborates. But there were some practical needs to be met. For guest comfort, each room is designed with a generous contemporary bathroom. Meanwhile, adding new waxed-iron partitions with openings for windows and doorways allowed the preservation of original stone portals and charming wooden doors without having to use them. 

Where Palazzo Petrvs does dive headfirst into totally new territory is the courtyard, though the source material is still ancient. Here, dell’Uva took inspiration from the gardens he’d toured in the other local palaces as well as traditional riads, creating a space that is centered around a working fountain. He designed benches, striped again in black-and-natural terra-cotta, with built-in planters and wrought-iron café tables and chairs with earth-red cushions. Vessels and pots overflow with local favorites, like acanthus, a typical Renaissance-era greenery. Something old and something new, it seems, is Italy’s version of an oasis. 

Walk Through the Nine-Key Palazzo Petrvs Hotel

GIULIANO ANDREA DELL’UVA ARCHITETTI: PASQUALE CAPASSO; FIORENZA MAURO.

MARTA FEGIZ: LANDSCAPE DESIGN.

ANDREA PETRANGELI: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER.

MATTEO BRIONI: PLASTERWORK.

FROM FRONT DEDAR: SOFA FABRIC (LOBBY). 

CARL HANSEN & SØN: DINING CHAIRS (LOBBY, RESTAURANT). 

NEMO LIGHTING: DESK LAMP (RECEPTION). 

THROUGH SIMON INTERNATIONAL: CONSOLE TABLE (LOBBY). 

MARINO MORETTI STUDIO: BOWL. 

FOLKFORM THROUGH ÖRSJÖ: LAMPS (SUITE). 

DORNBRACHT: TUB FITTINGS, SINK FITTINGS (BATHROOMS). 

REZINA: WHITE FLOOR (BATHROOM). 

THROUGHOUT SOCIETY LIMONTA: BED LINENS. 

This Napoli Home by Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva Architetti is a Hidden Gem

Italy’s third largest city, Naples, is not exactly known as a locus of peace and quiet. “The city is certainly chaotic,” says architect Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva, who has lived most of his 41 years there. “Its charm also comes from managing to find the serene and calm in that chaos.” That is precisely what he accomplished with his redesign of a three-bedroom, four-bath flat in the upscale Posillipo quarter for art/design collectors Irene and Teodoro Falco and their teenage daughter and son.

In a twist of fate, the 3,400-square-foot apartment, located in a 1956 building by Davide Pacanowski, has roots in dell’Uva’s youth, when he first became acquainted with the work of the Polish-born architect, a student of Le Corbusier’s. “I lived in a stretch of the Posillipo hill and was fascinated by the sight of Villa Crespi, a bold project of rationalist architecture that Pacanowski designed in 1955,” he recalls. The cliffside residence, with cantilevered slabs wedged between ancient pine trees, “was, for me, a symbol of the direct relationship between architecture and sea.”

Alas, his clients’ flat, though retaining some historical elements like porthole windows, had been restored in the 1990s “to a more neoclassical taste that eradicated its original charm,” dell’Uva recounts. “I really tried to get it back.”

Doing so entailed reconfiguring the floor plan around sea views, so that the public areas and main bedroom face the Gulf of Naples. Dell’Uva forewent corridors and divisions in favor of making the space as open as possible. The entry leads to conjoined living and dining areas (the Falcos requested a statement salon in which to receive guests) separated from the eat-in kitchen by full-height brass-frame glass doors. To the left of the living area’s fireplace—a steel marvel designed by the French sculptor Robert Ascain in 1972—a curved wall subtly directs foot traffic to a row of sleeping quarters: first the main suite, followed by bedrooms for the kids, as well as their own youthful sitting room. The son gets a custom berth tucked into a space-age aluminum enclosure.

The gulf also inspired the color scheme: sparsely deployed yellows and blues (see the cipollino marble paving the entry and cladding the primary bath walls) against a background of sparkling white. The city’s world-class cultural scene also figures prominently in the form of the couple’s blue-chip art collection as well as covetable vintage furnishings from a cadre of specialist dealers. Elements by maestri of design invariably factor into any dell’Uva project. He grew up surrounded by the work of Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, and others, which instilled a love of design in him from an early age. “Even as a little boy I would draw houses and interiors,” he recalls. (Dell’Uva was certainly precocious: his first project, at the tender age of 17, was the renovation of a family home his architect great-grandfather had designed in 1924; and he launched his own studio at 23, shortly after graduating from the Università di Napoli Federico II.)

cc tapis: rug (living area)

la cividina: sofas

through galleria francesco: coffee table

tacchini: armchairs

rezina: resin floor

through dimore gallery: floor lamp

through robertaebasta: chimney breast (living area), chandelier (dining area)

Nilufar: custom table, chairs (dining area)

paola c.: glass centerpiece

through galleria massimo caiafa: leather armchair (son’s room)

cassina: chairs (kitchen)

abimis: island

B&B Italia: sofa (kids’ lounge)

through galleria rossella colombari: vintage ceiling light

alimonti milano: marble (bathroom)

Dornbracht: sink and shower fittings

galleria elena: tilework (primary bedroom)

Nilufar: sofa