Castel Monastero - Tuscany

Castel Monastero is not so much a hotel as an entire medieval village, set within an 11th century borgo in on a hilltop overlooking Tuscany’s Ombrone Valley.

Over a mid-morning cappuccino in the village square, General Manager Andrea Provosti explained to Sleeper how Monastero D’Ombrone’s origins are lost in the history of medieval Tuscany. Following years of siege and use as a military outpost it was eventually bought by the wealthy Sienese Chigi Saracini family, whose palace in Rome is now the seat of Italian government.

When the last Count of the Chigi dynasty died without leaving an heir in 1970, the family’s land, including many Tuscan villages, passed to the Banco Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest surviving bank.
For centuries, it had been used as a place designated for hunting and harvesting the fruit of the vines in the castle territories. More recently it was home to various wine producers, the last of whom left in 1970.

The latest chapter in the village’s history has unfolded under the ownership of Emma Marcegaglia. Marcegaglia has been described as “Italy’s leading industrial businesswoman”. She is CEO of Grupo Marcegaglia and President of the powerful Confindustria employers’ union. Having launched the Forte Village in Sardinia, Castel Monastero is the second property in Marcegaglia’s new company Eleganzia Hotels & Resorts, billed as “a unique collection of luxury hotels which are inspired by values of Italian spirit, enthusiasm, and innovation”. The third Eleganzia property – La Maddelena Hotel & Yacht Club – is scheduled to open on the Sardinian island of Caprera, a former US army base, in Summer 2010.

Hirsch Bedner Associates won an international competition between ten different design practices for Castel Monastero. According to Provosti, they were selected because “they understood how to keep the magic – the soul, heritage and spirit of the village.”

The thirteen ancient stone buildings that comprised the village have now been transformed into a rural retreat which retains the feel of a medieval borgo. The main structures encircle an open, stone-paved piazza and house the lobby, conference room, a Gordon Ramsay restaurant and bar, as well as a number of guestrooms. The renovated farmhouses and villas that dot the 400-acre property are home to guestrooms, suites, and a spa, comprising two large outbuildings that were still to be completed on Sleeper’s visit in mid-September.

HBA was selected to achieve the delicate and complex task of coaxing a modern luxury resort from the borgo’s existing walls and spaces, without adding new stones or disturbing the ancient ones.
“We worked within the existing footprint, in close consultation with Sovraintendenza delle Belle Arti (the Tuscan historic preservation commission),” explains Eric Egan, HBA’s co-lead designer for the project. “Castel Monastero reflects its history in its layout, with the earliest structures arranged around an inner piazza, the small chapel of San Salvatore restored several times in the 17th and 18th centuries, the outlying farm buildings, and the four hectare grounds all converted into a historically grounded, yet fully contemporary luxury resort.”
According to HBA, the challenge of harmonizing a small village into a luxury hotel is “appropriately expressed in a line from the ancient Roman poet, Virgil: ‘color est e pluribus unus’ – which roughly translates as ‘from many colors, one’.”

Their objective was to balance traditional Tuscan architecture and setting with the contemporary elements and creature comforts necessary for the modern traveler.

“If ever a property demanded historical authenticity, it is Castel Monastero,” continues Egan. “With origins reaching back a millennia, the Castel Monastero had many prior lives: once the Abbey of Berardenga, later seat of noble families of Siena. Its emblem of six mountains topped by a star was that adopted by Fabio Chigi, who became Pope Alexander VII in the 17th century. Despite this illustrious legacy, the task of elevating the property to the standards of a five star resort required the complete gutting and renovation of every space.”
HBA’s designs for the guestrooms have been inspired by the region’s casali – the traditional great houses of Tuscany. Retaining the dimensions and outlines of original spaces, including terracotta floors and timbered ceilings, 69 of the 74 guest rooms are unique in shape and scheme. Each is a residential space, with its own personality.
Yet according to Patrizia Quartero, HBA London’s co-lead designer, the design team have created harmony by establishing “a vocabulary of furnishings and accessories to tie together common elements throughout the rooms, so that they have a similar feeling while actually being very distinct.”

While one room may have a 10-foot ceiling and another a 15-foot ceiling, all feature pigmented plaster walls and are decorated with antique accessories sourced in Florentine markets. Other subtle, unifying elements throughout the hotel include hand-forged, rod-iron furniture and custom fixtures such as bathroom sconces, lamps, chandeliers, and bedside tables made by local artisans. Several of the rooms feature original frescos, depicting Tuscan landscapes inspired by the early 19th century painter P. Frank Dotson.

The team have worked carefully to introduce modern features such as climate control whilst maximising the natural light in each room.
Sleeper’s suite in one of the freestanding villas featured warm terracotta tiles, and painted timber roof beams with a two-storey arch-shaped window allowing views out to the Tuscan hills. Design features include an antique leather chest sofa, and a distressed, ivory-painted boiserie panel. The walls are finished in stucco veneziano polished plaster, its marble like surface pigmented in a beeswax colour. Double doors give way to a bathroom, tiled in ash-grey Vulcan stone, with a graceful sink carved from the same material, an oversized oval Kaldewei soaking bathtub and natural linen curtains.

There is an element of “coals-to-Newcastle” in the decision to open a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Tuscany. But Provosti replies with a shrug of the shoulders when asked the inevitable question of why an Italian hotel would prefer an Englishman in charge of the cucina to a local chef. As he says, the foundations of Ramsay’s food – seasonal produce of the highest quality – are the same as those of Tuscan cuisine. As with any Ramsay operation these days, the spotlight should really fall on chef Alessandro Delfanti – the rising star of Italian cuisine who is running the restaurant’s day-to-day operation.

The less formal La Cantina restaurant is housed in the original cellars of the main building, an atmospheric stone vaulted space where guests can enjoy traditional Tuscan classics such as ribollita or roast chianina beef.

“We are fortunate in Italy,” concludes Egan. “Here there are many fine artisans who are excited by the opportunity to recreate history, from replicating existing architectural details to creating amazing furniture and accessories that bridge the old and the new.”

Castel Monastero
Loc. Monastero d’Ombrone 19
53019 Castelnuovo Berardenga, Siena, Italy
Tel: +39 0577 570001
Web: www.castelmonastero.com

Rooms 76 guestrooms & suites + Castel Monastero Villa
Dining Restaurants: Gordon Ramsay La Cantina
Leisure Spa, three outdoor swimming pools, tennis court
Facilities Various meeting and event spaces, private chapel