The Locanda Martorelli is a historical building and former hotel in the Piazza di Corte in Ariccia. The Grand Tour Museum inside the building is dedicated to the Grand Tour d’Italie and to the writers and artists who stayed there when it was still a hotel. in thepreserves in Room II a precious cycle of eighteenth-century wall temperas.
Locanda Martorelli Ariccia
Useful information
Address: Piazza di Corte, 4 – Ariccia. Phone: +39 388 3636502. Opening times: Saturdays from 16.00 till 18.30 and Sundays from 10.00 till 12.30. (Guided tours need to be booked in advance.) Ticket price: Unknown.
History and description
Before it became a hotel, what is now known as the Locanda Martorelli was a normal palazzo owned by Gian Battista Stazi.
In the 18th and 19th century, Ariccia was one of the stops on the Grand Tour d’Italie. It was built in 1768 and the rooms on the first floor were decorated with tempera wall and ceiling paintings by the Polish painter Taddeo Kuntze. The theme of the wall paintings was the mythological history of Ariccia (or Aricia, as it was known in Roman times).
In the 19th century, Antonio Martorelli acquired the building and made it into a hotel. Amongst its guests were famous people such as William Turner, Corot, Ibsen and Andersen.
Museum of the Grand Tour
At present the Locanda Martorelli is the seat of the Museum fo the Grand Tour. Apart from Kuntze’s wall paintings, you can also see the graffiti left on the wall by some of the Locanda’s famous guests.