Historic Hotel
Located on Isla de la Toja, this grand hotel may have historical significance and architectural features that reflect the island's past. Staying here offers a unique experience of the island's history and culture. The building's design and historical context contribute to its appeal.
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Year erected: 1908
What is the history of the property?
Around 1830, a priest from O Grove (Pontevedra), who was familiar with the legends about the medicinal waters, went to the island of La Toja with a very ill servant. After several bathing sessions in the thermal pools, the servant's health improved significantly. This marked the beginning of a progressive increase in the number of visits to the island.
In 1840, a private company established itself on the island with only a few barracks and a few ashlar houses. In 1841, the Galician chemist Antonio Casares analysed the composition of the water. His findings led to the official authorisation of the spa in 1842, thus encouraging a group of neighbours and owners to start up a small bathhouse.
At the end of the 1880s the figure of the Marquis of Riestra appeared, owner of the 110 hectares occupied by the island, who soon realised the possibilities of the business model.
In 1896 Laureano Salgado, an important Galician industrialist, and Fernando Rodríguez Porrero, an Asturian pharmacist, bought the land and formed the Sociedad Anónima La Toja. All of them intended to transform the small island of La Toja into a meeting place for the social and political elite, as well as a tourist and industrial business.
A competition was organised for the design of the Gran Hotel La Toja, in which French and German architects competed, but also Daniel Vázquez-Gulías from Ourense, who was the winner. His proposal was inspired by other famous European spas, such as the French Vichy and the German Marienbad. The jury was composed of members of the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Escuela Superior de Arquitectura in Madrid.
On 27 January 1904, Daniel Vázquez-Gulías signed a complete urban planning project around the thermal baths. The general plan envisaged the occupation of two thirds of the island's land, including the construction of a Grand Hotel with a spa, casino, restaurant, hospital, chapel, a farm and extensive landscaped areas. The remaining third was reserved for a hunting reserve and a small beach. It was also planned to build small colonies of luxurious chalets, a jetty and a bridge linking the island with the peninsula of O Grove.
The overall project was presented on 4 February 1904 in Madrid to the Civil Governor of Pontevedra and the Minister of Agriculture, Industry, Commerce and Public Works. This was how the work was authorised to begin with a period of 4 years to carry it out.
At the beginning of 1905, construction work began, placing the building at the forefront of Europe. In 1907 the work on the Gran Hotel and the Casino pavilion was completed, and it was inaugurated on 1 July 1908.
What was the era and/or the architectural style in which the property was built?
The architecture of the Gran Hotel La Toja responds in a practical way to all your needs. It is a building halfway between a hospital and a hotel, with characteristics of both. It is a curative building that gives rise to a space carefully designed to satisfy the wishes of its users.
The eclecticism typical of the end of the century allows all the stylistic liberties that converge in La Toja and which are manifested to a greater extent in the interior decoration, where stonemasons, blacksmiths, ceramists and painters contributed with their work to create the marvellous atmosphere of the Gran Hotel.
The dining room is a monumental double-height space with adjoining reading and billiard rooms. Once the tables were removed, it became a dance and music room. Its greatest architectural interest lay in the way natural light reached the centre of the room, through hollow levels and a large skylight. The interior embodied a modernist atmosphere adorned with arches with festoons and plant motifs, beautiful parapets of fine ironwork in the upper galleries and a magnificent mural painting by Ramón Pulido symbolising health, love and beauty, in a clear allusion to the paradise of the island of La Toja.
Is the property surrounded by other historic buildings?
The Chapel of the Shells is a monument built with the small treasures of the sea that declares the link between nature, architecture and the seafaring culture of the area.
The hermitage of La Toja has been worshipped since the 12th century.
Has restoration work taken place?
At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, the existing buildings were completed and improved, at the same time as the appearance of totally modern facilities designed in the style of the most prestigious spa towns.
In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, the Gran Hotel underwent its first major refurbishment, designed by Francisco Javier Sanz. The aim was to increase the number of rooms and the dining room, as the hotel was attracting more and more tourists.
The building lost the towers that had made it unique and the original frescoes and sculptures. The pomp disappeared in favour of simple, severe lines.
Today the hotel has 199 rooms, 21 of which are suites. The aesthetic reforms carried out by Eurostars Hotels have updated the facilities, restoring original elements of the building to enhance their value. As for the spa, its essence has been maintained and its equipment has been enhanced.
Are there any elements of particular historical importance at the building?
The building used to have towers, frescoes and original sculptures. There were columns-bust of women with their hands up, as if supporting the building.
Are there any important guests or previous owners worth mentioning?
Many celebrities have stayed at the Gran Hotel La Toja. Among them, numerous European monarchs such as the Infanta Isabel II and the King and Queen of Spain. Also Nobel Prize winners such as Gabriel García Márquez, José Ortega y Gasset, Severo Ochoa and Ramón y Cajal.
Among the writers who have stayed at the Gran Hotel are Miguel de Unamuno, Julián Marías, Camilo José Cela and Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, among others. The Baroness Thyssen and the banker Ana Patricia Botín have also been invited.
Are there any significant events that took place at the property in the past?
In 1989, for the first and only time in history, an annual meeting of the Bildelberg Club was held in Spain, and its organisers chose La Toja as the venue. Its members, who included the kings of Spain and Belgium, the American tycoon David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and the former Spanish president Felipe González, thought that this was the most suitable place to enjoy absolute discretion.
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