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“forse anche per questo qui alla Colomba abbiamo deciso di non dotare le camere di televisione, per lasciare spazio sufficiente al profilo dei nostri monti e al silenzio della valle”
A hotel that was a convent, military barracks, a school...
May 31st 1591. Only three years had gone since the end of the witches trials that left the town of Triora divided and stained with blood.
But on that day the local parliament was unusually united and had no doubt: Triora would have a church and a convent dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, built on the most beautiful spot in town. They chose an area just outside the village called “La Sella”, surrounded by lush fields of wheat and vineyards.
The building works started in September of the following year, and they were carried out at such speed that in 1595 the monks were able to move into the convent, next to the big church that had been finished already. This was the birth of the Convent of Saint Francis in Triora.
Within its walls many well-known characters studied and lived, whose fame spread throughout Italy, while some went far beyond: Saint John Lantrua went as far as China, eventually dying there as a martyr in 1816.
The presence of the monks and their unremitting dedication to help the poorest and the helpless, was still not enough to stop the slow and inescapable secularization of society.
After a first attempt by the French government to shut down the church and the convent in 1810, the Town Council, who was the legal owner of these properties, finally sold it to the Military Authority in 1879.
The stubborn opposition of the people of Triora to the demolition of “their” convent was touching. A legendary and moving procession took place in April 1879: while the bells of the convent were tolling merrily for the last time, the villagers headed for the Collegiata church, taking with them the crucifix, the paintings and all the furniture before the final destruction.
From that moment onwards the building, duly modified and adapted to the new requirements, was home to special mountain troops and an infantry platoon until the end of the First World War.
Once the war was over, the use of what used to be the convent changed once again: at first it became the village school, then it became the first mountain summer school in the province of Imperia.
But in 1926 the possibility of war loomed again over Italy, and Triora was, after all, a frontier town. The summer school was closed, and the place, which was re-named “Saccarello Army Barracks” was home once more to mountain and infantry troops, then to the “Frontier Guards”. Heavily damaged by the German artillery on the 4th July 1944, pillaged and plundered, at the end of the war the barracks were abandoned for many long years. In January 1962 the Town Council decided to sell the property to Stefano Ferro, who planned to turn this building in ruins into a hotel and restaurant.
January 1st 1963: for the convent turned barracks, turned school, then barracks again this is the day of the re-birth. The property in fact was finally acquired by Marta and Silvio Pastor, who, with great courage and a lot of hard work, finished the construction of the hotel, while at the same time saving from complete ruin all the original features of the convent and the bell tower, which were not just restored but highlighted.
It’s the year 2008. For the past forty years Marta and Silvio, and more recently their daughters Simona and Sonia, helped by a team of dedicated workers, have been welcoming visitors of the Argentina Valley with kindness and charm, offering a peaceful and comfortable environment, feeding them food which is at the same time simple and amazing. Like the story of the place that they rescued from ruin.
