discover the story of
palazzo belmonte
Between past and present
A journey through time
Welcome to Palazzo Belmonte
Welcome to the Palazzo. This has been our family home for several generations. We hope that you feel at home here too. Palazzo Belmonte was built by the Granito family and enlarged after the marriage of the Granito Marquess of Castellabate with the Pignatelli Princess di Belmonte in the mid nineteenth century. Through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it served both as a summer retreat for the family, who came down by boat from Naples, and more importantly as the storehouse for grain, olive oil and wine all produced in the farms that still dot the landscape between Punta Tresino in the north and Punta Licosa in the south. It is said that in the autumn, when the first mule-cart carrying the fruits of the harvest arrived at the Palazzo the last in the caravan would be leaving Tresino, several miles away. Once safely stored, the provender would be shipped north to the family Palazzo in Naples as it was needed. You can see the large storerooms on the ground floor of the old Palazzo.
You can see the large storerooms on the ground floor of the old Palazzo. In the 1970s Angelo and Sarah Granito di Belmonte took the decision to convert these vast old rooms into apartments for paying guests. Over the best part of fifty years the Palazzo has evolved from these self catering beginnings, to the Hotel in which you are now staying.
In 2021 Angelo and Sarah took the decision to hand on the management of the hotel and ownership of the Palazzo, to us, their daughters, Francesca and Sofia. We hope to make our mark through a gentle modernisation and a revival of the relaxed charm that makes the Palazzo unique as a place to stay.
Our house from
different generations
In the eighteenth century, the Granito family divided their time between their estates here and their responsibilities as courtiers and administrators in the Bourbon governments in Naples. Villa Granito in Portici, just outside Naples and strategically located next to the Royal Palace of King Charles III and VII of Spain and Naples is a reminder of the closeness of the family to the ruling dynasty of southern Italy. It is said that Charles III and VII’s son Ferdinand IV of Naples stayed here to hunt wild boar and quail.
However, with the unification of Italy and the exile of the Bourbons, the family turned towards the better administration of their estates, with the Granito Pignatelli marriage joining the property here to very significant holdings across southern Italy and Spain. Within two generations these estates had been divided between the children and grandchildren of the Princess and the Marquess, leaving the Palazzo once again as the administrative centre of a core holding of ancestral Granito farmland.
From the sixteenth century members of the family appear on the stages of Neapolitan, Spanish, Italian and European history, providing Generals, Ministers, Ambassadors, Cardinals and even a Pope to the ongoing story of the continent. Cardinal Genaro Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte was Dean of the College of Cardinals from 1930 until his death in 1948 and was twice considered papabile. His stall from the Sistine Chapel is now located outside the family chapel in the Palazzo
The family’s service to Church and State continues, with the Cardinal’s great great great nephew Robert acting as Page of Honour to HM Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom from 2018 until her death in 2022.
Welcome to the Palazzo, to our home
and to its history.
Francesca and Sofia Granito Pignatelli of Belmonte
– April 2023
