One thing was clear at the time to the politicians who administered the Sicilian town at the end of the XNUMXth century: the newly built Grand Hotel was supposed to amaze its guests.
It actually dates back to late nineteenth century in Italy, the concept that spa had to be better developed and well managed to enjoy the advantages of a new and rich opportunity: the spa tourism.
It was a new but at the same time ancient form of tourism, which saw thermal springs as a reason to attract nobles and wealthy bourgeois who intended to undergo specific treatments taking advantage of the characteristics of sulphurous waters rich in beneficial properties for the body.
Termini Imerese, with its spas known since ancient times, decided to exploit the positive moment of requests for stay from many parts of the Kingdom and from abroad, by having a place built that was to amaze everyone with its beauty: the Grand Hotel built right next to the Old Baths, where the precious waters of volcanic origin coming from the subsoil are collected and flow at a temperature of 43 degrees with analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties.
The task of designing an accommodation facility was thus given to Giuseppe Damiani Almejda, one of the most famous architects of those times who had also recently created the Politeama of Palermo.
The construction of the Grand Hotel
Obviously during the excavations for the foundations, various rooms dating back to remote times came to light, such as a space that was connected to a women's bathroom, which was incorporated into the structure being built as also testified by some scholars of eighteenth-century local history such as a certain Patiri , in his book Termini Imerese antica e moderni, attested that during the construction of the New Establishment, walls and sumptuous vestiges belonging to the ancient spas.
It referred to a composite stratification that included buildings dating back to different eras, probably Greek, Roman and Arab, which demonstrated the importance of these thermal waters appreciated by every people who settled in this territory.
The quotes made by Pindar, an ancient Greek poet who in his Olimpica XII mentions the hot baths of nearby Imera, do not escape attention. Evidence also supported by finds dating back to the end of the XNUMXth century BC found during archaeological excavations carried out in the Church of St. Catherine.
Once the construction of the Grand Hotel, this was immediately chosen as a good retreat by nobles and rich people, who frequented the spa between 1910 and 1960, and also home to the headquarters of the famous car race Targa Florio.
In fact, precisely in that period in which the speed race involving racing cars of all brands was taking place, it was not at all uncommon to find Sicilian nobles but also foreigners residing at the Grand Hotel who loved to show off their wealth in an ostentatious way. Many pilots involved in the competition also used to stay in the exclusive rooms of the Grand Hotel of the Baths like the mythical Enzo Ferrari who loved being a guest in this luxurious facility during the race of the Targa Florio.
Stay at Grand Hotel of the Baths it also turns out to be an opportunity to explore the town of Termini Imerese starting right from the Church of San Nicola di Bari, the most significant and important religious building in the city, as well as the famous Antiquarium of Himera where artefacts found in the archaeological area of ancient Himera are kept, the historic colony from which the current Termini Imerese later derived.
