History

Built in the 1910s on a design by architect Carlo Angelo Ceresa, the structure rose on land previously buried by devastating floods of the Rho stream in 1872 and 1873. The site had once held the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, destroyed by those same alluvial deposits.

The Bardonecchia Real Estate Company commissioned the “Kursaal”—initially called the “Gran Salone Divertimenti”—as part of an ambitious development scheme that included villas, riverbank works, and infrastructure. Construction continued through World War I, during which the incomplete building housed Austro-Hungarian officers and prisoners of war.

After the war, Fiat acquired the property and used it as a company recreation center. In 1935, Fiat donated the deteriorating structure to the Municipality of Bardonecchia. The Visetti company undertook swift restoration, and on 3 August 1935, *The Barber of Seville* inaugurated the newly named Palazzo delle Feste.

Theatrical impresario Umberto Fiandra—later director of major Turin theaters—managed the venue through the late 1930s with distinction. The relationship ended in 1939 as war loomed. From the postwar period through the 1970s, the palazzo declined steadily, cycling through uses as ballroom, cinema, youth hostel, and warehouse.

Restoration began in 1981 with regional funding, accelerated by European Union support, and was completed in 1997.