Belmond Hotel Cipriani

Giudecca, 1956 — Giuseppe Cipriani, who had opened Harry’s Bar twenty-five years earlier, decided to build a house for travellers who wanted to be near St Mark’s without being in the crush of it. He took three acres on the tip of the then-deserted Giudecca and secured the money from three Guinness sisters. Guests were arriving within two years.

The house

Murano glass and Fortuny fabrics; the room count small, the garden large, and the water between the hotel and the city doing the work that walls do elsewhere. Cipriani was hands-on throughout, by his grandson Bonifacio Brass’s account.

The pool is a translation error. When the Guinness sisters came to see it they objected that they had not agreed to an Olympic pool. Cipriani replied that the architect had settled on 25 by 50; they had meant feet and he had built metres. The manager of the day, Enzo Cecconi, later put the real figure at 33 by 13.5 metres — he supervised the work. Whatever the dimensions, the pool became one of the most exclusive meeting places in Venice.

Sold into James Sherwood’s collection — the Cipriani was his 1976 purchase and the origin point of what became Belmond, bought on a whim for £900,000 when it was losing money. Belmond joined LVMH in 2019.

What distinguishes it

It is the second house of a barman. Giuseppe Cipriani opened Harry’s Bar in 1931 and built this at fifty-six. The Library holds both, and the bar is the more famous.

The money came from three sisters. The Guinness sisters financed a Venetian hotel on a deserted island. No other grand hotel in this Library was funded by three women acting together.

The pool exists because of a unit mix-up. Feet against metres, argued over after it was dug. The most famous swimming pool in Venice is the result of a measurement error nobody corrected.

It began a company by accident. Sherwood bought it in 1976 because he liked staying there, not as a strategy. The hotel that became Belmond was a loss-making property bought on a whim.

The water is the wall. On the Giudecca, minutes from St Mark’s by the hotel’s own launch, and completely apart from the crowd. Privacy achieved by geography rather than by gates.

Signature rooms and dates

Competitive landscape

Editorial note — The 1956 start on the Giudecca, the three-acre plot, the Guinness sisters’ funding, guests within two years, the pool dispute as recounted by Belmond with Enzo Cecconi’s 33 by 13.5 metres, and Sherwood’s 1976 purchase at £900,000 checked against Belmond corporate history and independent accounts; verified August 2026. The pool anecdote is the house’s own and is carried as such.