Where is Helvetia & Bristol?

At Via dei Pescioni 2, in the Santa Maria Novella quarter of Florence. The nearest tram stop is Unità, on lines T1 and T2, beside Santa Maria Novella station, about 500 metres away.

Which museums and sights are near Helvetia & Bristol?

Florence Cathedral is 350 m away, Medici Chapels is 400 m away, Palazzo Vecchio is 400 m away. Distances are in a straight line from the hotel.

Does Helvetia & Bristol have a swimming pool?

No. Helvetia & Bristol has no swimming pool, though it has a spa.

When did Helvetia & Bristol open?

In 1885, by its own account. It has rooms and suites in two buildings beside Palazzo Strozzi.

Number 10 of 16 in Florence

Helvetia & Bristol

The Helvetia & Bristol was built for the English and the Swiss who came to Florence for the winter, and it has kept the feel of a private house with a great many pictures.

Class: Five-star hotel
Opened: 1885
Rooms: Rooms and suites in two buildings beside Palazzo Strozzi
Area: Palazzo Strozzi

Florence this week

What sets Helvetia & Bristol apart

The guests
John Singer Sargent, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Eleonora Duse, Luigi Pirandello, Eugenio Montale, Enrico Fermi, Igor Stravinsky and Giorgio de Chirico all stayed here.
The winter garden
The former reading room was turned into a glass-roofed winter garden about 1899, in the Liberty style.
The griffin
On the corner of the building a bronze griffin holds a lantern, cast in 1926 after the ironwork of Palazzo Strozzi next door.
Beside Palazzo Strozzi
The largest Renaissance palace in Florence, now the city's hall for exhibitions, is across the street. Via de' Tornabuoni and its shops are one block away.

What it has

Spa
Winter garden
Restaurant
Bar

Where Helvetia & Bristol is

Address

Via dei Pescioni 2
50123 Florence, Italy

Nearest tram

Unità, on lines T1 and T2, beside Santa Maria Novella station, about 500 metres away

Museums and sights nearby

Distances are in a straight line from the hotel.

A Swiss hotelier's house, since the 1880s

The hotel gives 1885 as its year. The city's register of historic businesses says that the Swiss hotelier Giacomo Mosca founded it on 28 June 1883. The building on the corner of Via dei Pescioni and Via degli Strozzi was put up for it in 1894 and 1895, and the Mosca family kept the hotel for almost a century.

It was sold in 1987, restored for two years and reopened in 1989. Starhotels bought it in 2016, redid the interiors and, in 2019 and 2020, extended it into the former bank next door.