San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel

The Dominicans built their monastery on the edge of Taormina in 1374, on land given by Damiano Rosso, a nobleman of the town, on a ledge above the Ionian Sea with Etna across the bay to the south-west. For five centuries the friars kept it. In 1896 the heirs of the founder, the princes of Cerami, opened part of it as a hotel, and the San Domenico Palace became one of the grand hotels of Sicily. Four Seasons took it over and reopened it in July 2021 as San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel.

History

The monastery's cloister, with its columns and its garden of orange trees, dates from the seventeenth century, and the church of San Domenico stood beside it. After the suppression of the religious orders in Italy in 1866 the complex returned to the Cerami family, and in 1896 they opened the hotel in the old cells, adding a new wing in 1897 for the growing stream of northern Europeans wintering in Taormina. The guest lists of the following decades carried Edward VII, Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo.

In the Second World War the German command took the hotel as its headquarters in Sicily, and Allied bombing in July 1943 destroyed the church and part of the buildings; the church was never rebuilt, and its site is now the garden. The hotel reopened after the war and stayed in business through Taormina's film festival summers until the owner, the Gruppo Statuto, closed it in 2019 for a full renovation with Four Seasons.

Architecture and design

The monastery plan survives: the cloister at the centre, the long corridors of cells on two floors, the great hall and the refectory, and the 1897 wing alongside. The renovation of 2019 to 2021 kept the stone, the vaults and the frescoes, and brought the gardens, laid out on terraces towards the sea, into the plan with an infinity pool at their edge, facing the Bay of Naxos and Etna. Interiors mix the monastic with the Sicilian: terracotta, ceramics from Caltagirone, iron, linen and the colours of the island.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 111 rooms and suites. Rooms in the old monastery occupy the former cells, enlarged and joined, with views into the cloister or over the sea; rooms in the wing of 1897 have the higher ceilings and the balconies. The suites at the top of the house look along the coast to Etna.

Dining

Principe Cerami is the fine-dining restaurant, named for the family who opened the hotel, with a Michelin star and a Sicilian menu served on the terrace in summer. Anciovi, by the pool, does grilled fish and vegetables at lunch and dinner. The Bar & Chiostro serves cocktails in the cloister, and breakfast is taken on the terrace above the bay.

Wellness

The spa occupies the lower floors near the gardens, with treatment rooms, a sauna, a steam room and a gym; the infinity pool on the garden terrace is the main pool.

Weddings and events

The cloister and the gardens are the wedding settings, with ceremonies in the garden where the church once stood and dinners in the cloister or the great hall. The hotel hosts meetings and events in its historic rooms. Most weddings here take the whole house.

Location

The hotel stands at the southern end of Taormina's old town, on Piazza San Domenico, a few minutes' walk from Corso Umberto and the Greek theatre. The beaches at Isola Bella and Mazzarò are reached by the cable car from the town or by the hotel's shuttle. Catania Fontanarossa airport is about an hour by car; Taormina-Giardini railway station lies below the town, fifteen minutes away. For a luxury hotel in Sicily, no other address carries this much of the island's history in its walls.