The Bauer Hotel is a historic five-star hotel located on the north bank of the Grand Canal in the

San Marco San Marco is one of the six sestieri of Venice, lying in the heart of the city as the main place of Venice. San Marco also includes the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Although the district includes Saint Mark's Square, that was never admin ...

sestiere A (plural: ) is a subdivision of certain Italian towns and cities. The word is from (‘sixth’), so it is thus used only for towns divided into six districts. The best-known example is the ''sestieri'' of Venice, but Ascoli Piceno, Genoa, Mi ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, near the

Piazza San Marco Piazza San Marco (; vec, Piasa San Marco), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as ''la Piazza'' ("the Square"). All other urban spaces in the city (exc ...

History

The hotel was founded in 1880 as the Grand Hotel d'Italie Bauer-Grünwald by Mr. Bauer, a director of Venice's Hotel de la Ville, and Julius (Giulio) Grünwald, an Austrian who married Bauer's daughter. The main hotel building, facing the Grand Canal, was rebuilt from 1900 to 1902,"Il nuovo palazzo dell'albergo 'Italia'", ''L'Edilizia Moderna'', 1902
p. 23f
/ref> to designs by architect Giovanni Sardi in an eclectic neo-

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style,Giulio Lorenzetti, John Guthrie, translator, ''Venice and Its Lagoon'', Trieste:1975, p. 627 which has been described as "perhaps the most significant representative of late-nineteenth century Venetian medieval mannerism"."Hotel Bauer Gruenwald", ''Condotte nei Restauri'', 1992, , p. 89ff On the southwest corner is the Canal Bar, a large ground-level terrace surrounded by a stone fretwork fence; at the corner there stands and a 3.6m tall statue of a woman representing Italy, a work of Carlo Lorenzetti. Before the hotel's construction, this was a public square called ''dei Felzi''. The hotel's site previously held a 15th-century building in the "Arabo-Byzantine" style, which was demolished in 1844. Some fragments of that building were incorporated into Sardi's construction. In 1930, Grünwald's heirs sold the Hotel Bauer-Grünwald to Arnaldo Bennati, a Ligurian shipbuilder. An extra floor was added on top in 1939 by Giovanni or Giuseppe Berti. The 7th-floor terrace "Settimo Cielo" is the highest terrace in Venice. The hotel was closed for much of the 1940s, during which time Bennati undertook extensive renovations and added an extension to the hotel in the rear,"1880: Bauer Il Palazzo", ''Historic Hotels of the World''
/ref> facing the Campo San Moisè. The new wing was designed by Marino Meo in 1945 and completed in 1949.

Touring Club Italiano The Touring Club Italiano (TCI) (Italian Touring Club or Touring Club of Italy) is the major Italian national tourist organization. The Touring Club Ciclistico Italiano (TCCI) was founded on 8 November 1894 by a group of bicyclists to promote the ...

, ''Venezia'', ''Guida d'Italia del Touring Club Italiano'' (Guide Rosse), 3rd edition, 1985, , p. 310Giulia Foscari, ''Elements of Venice'', 2014, , p. 150 The adjacent San Moisè church, with "the busiest façade in town", contrasts with the travertine cladding and light-colored marble columns of the Bauer extension, which has been called "brutally modernist in its plainness"; Joseph Brodsky described the juxtaposition as "Albert Speer having a pizza capricciosa". In 1999, Francesca Bortolotto Possati, granddaughter of Arnaldo Bennati, became the chairwoman and CEO of the hotel. The hotel underwent a major renovation that year, overseen by Bortolotto Possati. The 1949 wing is marketed as the Hotel Bauer, while the older section is marketed as the Hotel Bauer Palazzo. Elliott Management and Blue Skye investments acquired the hotel through a series of debt restructuring deals between 2017 and 2019. In 2020, the Austrian real estate investment group SIGNA bought the hotel. The Bauer group also owns the Residenza Grunwald (formerly Bauer Casa Nova), located adjacent to the hotel on the Campo San Moisè. The group also formerly operated the Bauer Palladio and Villa F on the

Giudecca Giudecca (; vec, Zueca) is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, in northern Italy. It is part of the '' sestiere'' of Dorsoduro and is a locality of the ''comune'' of Venice. Geography Giudecca lies immediately south of the central islands of Ve ...

, facing

across the

Giudecca Canal The Giudecca Canal ( vec, Canal de ła Zueca) is a body of water that flows into the San Marco basin in Venice, Italy. It is one of the major canals in the city, it bisects the ''sestieri'' of Dorsoduro, separating Giudecca island and district f ...

. The hotel is set to close in November 2022 for a major renovation. It will reopen in 2025, managed by Rosewood Hotels as the Rosewood Hotel Bauer. The hotel is a member of

Leading Hotels of the World In typography, leading ( ) is the space between adjacent lines of type; the exact definition varies. In hand typesetting, leading is the thin strips of lead (or aluminium) that were inserted between lines of type in the composing stick to incre ...

Services

The Bauer offers 56 suites and 135 rooms. The hotel restaurant is De Pisis. Breakfast is served on the 7th floor terrace, the Settimo Cielo, which in the evening serves drinks and snacks. The Canal Bar is outside, at ground level, and the B Bar offers live jazz performances.

Location

To the left of the hotel, across the Rio San Moisè, is the Palazzo Treves-Barozzi, and to its right, separated by the Calle Tredici Martiri, is the

Ca' Giustinian The Ca' Giustinian, sometimes called the Palazzo Giustinian, is a palace on the Grand Canal (Venice), Grand Canal in the San Marco sestiere of Venice, Italy. It is today the seat of the Venice Biennale. Built in 1471, it was among the last Venetia ...

. The hotel's main entrance is on the north, on the Campo San Moisè. On its west runs the Rio San Moisè, on which it has a boat landing. It faces the Dogana and the

Salute A salute is usually a formal hand gesture or other action used to display respect in military situations. Salutes are primarily associated with the military and law enforcement, but many civilian organizations, such as Girl Guides, Boy Sco ...

across the Grand Canal.

In literature

The Bauer-Grünwald is one of the settings of Chekhov's novella '' An Anonymous Story'' (1893).

Gallery

Image:Bauer_1828.jpg, Site of Bauer in 1828, before 1844 and 1900 demolitions Image:Bauer-Grünwald plan 1902.png, Ground plan of 1902 Image:Campo San Moisè.jpg, Elaborate façade of San Moisè contrasting with the modernist façade of the Bauer Image:Rio s moise acqua alta 2.JPG, The San Moisè entrance

External links

Hotel Bauer Venice official website

Notes

{{The Leading Hotels of the World Hotels in Venice Five star hotels Italian companies established in 1880 Hotel buildings completed in 1902 Hotel buildings completed in 1949 Companies based in Venice Bauer The Leading Hotels of the World Venetian Gothic architecture