The Matuzian Gaming House

The birth of the Casino Matutian has its roots in the Sanremo of the first years after the Unification of Italy, when, while the city was laying the foundations to become a great climatic and touristic centre, the first structures destined to be places of leisure and entertainment for the growing colony of foreigners were built.

The first reading room with a casino was opened in 1862, followed three years later by a reading room with a café service, and in 1869 an International Club was opened with card rooms, billiards, music, a newsstand with foreign newspapers and an outdoor area.

Repeated requests to the local authorities for the construction of new recreational facilities finally resulted in the request made in 1875 to the Municipality by an English company to build an imposing crystal palace for major exhibitions, performances and events, which was to include gaming and reading rooms, concert halls and commercial establishments. In the same year, Duke Borea d'Olmo sold some land to the public administration to build a casino.

However, the City Council did not approve the project for the crystal palace, while from 1880 onwards, several projects were drawn up for the construction of a municipal casino (or Kursaal, as it was called at the time), which was to be built on the area already occupied by the Maria Vittoria public gardens.

In 1880, the first plan for the construction of the casino was put forward by the Austrian Adolf Mayer, who presented a project, prepared by the architect Pio Soli, which envisaged the construction of the new building on the area of the former Capuchin convent and church and on part of the Maria Vittoria garden, in the area where the current gaming house stands.
But in the autumn of 1881, the City Council rejected this first project put forward by Mayer's company, which had also committed a capital of one million lire.

The main reason for the city council's refusal to erect a casino in the city was that many councillors were drastically opposed to the creation of a "gaming hall". According to the intentions of the authorities and the suggestions of the San Remo press, in fact, the Casino should not have been built as a simple gambling den, but exclusively as a meeting place, where all the most important events intended to entertain the many foreigners living in San Remo at the time could be held.

In 1883 Alessandro Salle, who had already built the Deauville Casino in France, put forward another project that involved building the gambling house on a piece of land located between the Hotel Mediterranée and the Hotel Victoria (today's school building next to the Court) in Corso Cavallotti.
The following year he followed the project proposed by a certain Reynard, on behalf of the Agence Ligurienne, and signed by the engineer Pisani, which simply provided for the transformation of Villa Zirio in Corso Cavallotti, built a few years earlier, into a casino.

In 1888, Pio Soli again presented a project, proposing the idea of building the casino on the area of the former Capuchin convent without touching the church, according to an outline plan that would be taken up seven years later by engineer Semiglia in his project, advanced by Guglielmo Wanderpool, but which also remained on paper.

In the early nineties, partly in order to provide an adequate response to the increasingly continuous and pressing demands of public opinion, the City Council finally came out officially in favour of the construction of a Municipal Casino, which was to be built on the area occupied by the Maria Vittoria public gardens.

The Matuzian administrators hoped that this would put an end to all the discussions and controversies that had arisen in the meantime among local politicians regarding the location of the new casino, which some wanted to be built in the area above the public gardens, others in Via Vittorio Emanuele, and others under Corso Imperatrice, others wanted it to be located in the area above the public garden, others in Via Vittorio Emanuele, and yet others under Corso Imperatrice on the model of the one in Nice, while there were also those who wanted it in a modest form, considering it an unnecessary and wasteful expense, and those who did not want it at all, preferring to build the general sewerage system, which would have cost the same amount.

After an agreement with the entrepreneur Villiers fell through because of the latter's death, the Municipal Administration, presided over by Augusto Mombello, reached an agreement with the French businessman Carlo Foisnon, who had already built the Casino of Ostend in Belgium. He began work on the construction of the new Casino in the Maria Vittoria Gardens, based first on a project drawn up in 1897 by the Parisian architect Jules Guillemin and then by the engineer Bertrand in 1899.
However, Foisnon, who had committed more than a million lire to the project, later withdrew from the project, losing, among other things, the considerable sum of one hundred thousand francs for failing to meet his contractual obligations with the City Council.

In the meantime, new projects continued to be presented, including another by the engineer Pisani in 1900 with the plan to build the gaming house in the Maria Vittoria gardens; the one of 25 February 1901 by the Swedish architect and painter Augusto Åberg, who also identified the Maria Vittoria gardens as the most suitable area for the new Casino; that of May 1901 by the architect Godefry Tessere, who had chosen the area to the north of the Maria Vittoria gardens; and the project put forward in 1902 by the German architect and painter Paul Bouvier, who, as well as having identified the ideal area in the Maria Vittoria gardens, also proposed the construction of a new music kiosk to replace the one that would have had to be demolished to make way for the gaming house.

In addition to these projects, there was also a competition reserved for engineers and architects and promoted in 1901 by the "Società degli interessi locali" (Society of Local Interests) for a casino project, which was to be built in the Maria Vittoria gardens. However, the competition was unsuccessful, as none of the projects submitted was deemed to meet the aims of the Society for the construction of the new casino.

After many unsuccessful projects, the one that was to be realised was finally chosen. It was the project presented to the City Hall's Protocol Office on 9 December 1903 by 53-year-old Parisian architect Eugène Ferret, who had designed the Saigon Casino and the first Municipal Casino in Cannes.
Ferret had already been in contact with the Matuzian municipal administration since 1900, when he appeared for the first time in San Remo together with a certain Mr Le Blanc, who represented a group of Parisian financiers then involved in the construction of the Vichy Casino.

The Parisian architect had previously proposed a series of projects, subjected to various modifications, while he himself was on the verge of giving up for lack of adequate financing during 1902, so much so that the situation could only be unblocked thanks to the providential intervention of the ex-mayor Bartolomeo Asquasciati, owner of the «Asquasciati Frères English Bank», who gave Mayor Mombello the huge sum of 1,200,000 lire to finance the project.

In March 1903, the first twenty-five plates of Ferret's project were displayed in the window of the Benecke and Heywood city agency, while on the following 25 May, the City Council gave its final approval to the project prepared by the Parisian architect.
The Parisian architect's project involved the construction of a building with a central body with three arches and side turrets, a large «Winter Garden» inside, and Liberty and Art Nouveau gaming rooms on the first floor, with the addition of a side building with a theatre, offices and services.
The entire building was constructed in the northern area of the Maria Vittoria public gardens.

On 5 November 1903, the contract for the construction and operation of the Municipal Casino was officially signed by Mayor Mombello and Ferret himself, who undertook to build the new Casino at his own risk on the land owned by the municipality in the Maria Vittoria gardens. The new Casino was to include a performance hall with seating for approximately 625 people, a winter garden, a party room, a conversation room, a reading and correspondence room, a clubhouse with an adjoining gaming room, a restaurant and a café with all related facilities.

Just two days after the contract was signed, the French architect had the area available for the first works, which were to last a maximum of sixteen months from the date of acceptance by the municipal administration. However, the total cost of the work increased from the figure agreed at the beginning to the final sum of 1,076,960 lire, including the cost of Ferret's fee, according to what was later ascertained in the inspection carried out by Pio Soli.

One of the clauses of the contract stated that Ferret, as concessionaire of the Casino, would have the right to hold all the games permitted by the laws in force at the time, in addition to the games tolerated in the winter and seaside resorts of the Kingdom, in special rooms, while the period of operation of the Casino would last from 15 December to 15 April each year, when concerts would be held in the afternoon or evening and no less than three theatrical performances would be held each week.

The agreement also fixed the duration of the concession at thirty years from the opening of the Casino, even though the contract with the company presided over by the Parisian architect would be terminated by order of the Court of San Remo just two years and thirteen days after the inauguration of the casino.
The act relating to the granting of the concession to Ferret, drawn up by the Perinaldo notary Mario Raimondo, was then ratified by the Prefect of Porto Maurizio De Rossi on 16 April 1904.

The agreements provided for in the 1903 contract were finally perfected by a subsequent additional Convention, signed on 17 June 1904 between the Municipality of San Remo and the French architect in order to clarify some questions that had arisen in the meantime between the Municipal Administration and the Parisian impresario concerning the financial management of the new Casino.
The last administrative act before construction of the building began was concluded at the end of 1904, just two weeks before the inauguration at the beginning of the following year.
The Casino had been built using mainly local materials according to a general Art Nouveau design, influenced by Charles Garnier, especially in the architectural solution of the two large towers on the main façade, while the general layout of the building was clearly eclectic in style, using typically neo-Baroque stylistic motifs in the front.

On the evening of Saturday 14 January 1905 the official inauguration of the Casino took place with a party held in the brand new Winter Garden of the gaming house, under the patronage of the Prefect of Porto Maurizio, the Subprefect and the Municipality of Sanremo for the benefit of the city's charities. During the gala evening, there was a much applauded classical music concert conducted by Maestro Giannini, which featured pieces by Bizet, Mendelssohn, Saint-Säens, Wagner, Rossini, Verdi, Delibès and Haendel.

However, the original building underwent several changes, starting with the one made in 1911, when, based on a design by engineer Manfredini, the café and billiard room to the right of the atrium were removed to create the staircase, which still exists today, used to access the gaming rooms on the first floor, and the Winter Garden was slightly modified with the introduction of a stage for shows.

The initial colour of the Casino, which was probably intended to be an ochre-yellow with brownish highlights in the reliefs according to the typical chromatic dictates of Art Nouveau, was then changed to the current white during the Twenties, in deference to the fashion imposed at the time by Art Deco.

In 1928, the forepart was built on the right side of the façade, with a terrace on the first floor (where the restaurant is today), the windows were modified, the terraces were covered and the small domes on the roof were arranged.

In December 1928, the law permitting gambling in the Matuzian Casino was finally passed.

In the following years other important changes were made to the original architectural structure of the casino (initially based on a project by engineer Bianchi), such as the elimination of the entrance on the east side, the construction of a whole series of rooms and services at the rear of the building and the completion of the side entrance to the Opera House, which was not included in the original project and which would become famous from the early 1950s as the entrance to the Festival.

On 27th December 1979, the former Salone delle feste e degli spettacoli, which had hosted the Italian Song Festival until 1976, was re-inaugurated. This famous music event was organised by RAI and won its first edition by Nilla Pizzi with the song Grazie dei fior during a gala evening presented by Nunzio Filogamo on 29th January 1951.

The Sanremo Festival, which later moved to the more spacious Ariston Theatre in 1977, would also contribute decisively to launching the image of the Matuzian Casino throughout the world.

During the 1970s, the old Ballroom, which had in turn replaced the former Winter Garden, rich in stucco and Art Nouveau motifs, then restored in the 1930s to a design by Gio Ponti, was completely renovated, taking on a new architectural appearance marked by a modern line with extensive use of light, velvet and crystal. This new room was then lowered to the level of the garden to allow separate access to the interior, where the large hall of the slot machines, first activated in 1980, has been located since the 1990s.

The rooms of the Casino have also hosted numerous national and international art exhibitions and shows, with the participation of leading artists such as Aligi Sassu, Salvador Dalì, Giacomo Manzù, Fausto Bonaro, Filippo Salesi, Mino Maccari, Giuseppe Cesetti, Francesco Messina, Aurelio Caminati, Roman Bilinski, Augusto Murer, Saverio Barbaro, Roberto Masi, Remo Brindisi, Antonio Perdetti, Italo Cremona and Amelia Moretti Carpinello.

Other important cultural events that still take place in the Sanremo Casino include theatre shows and reviews, classical, opera and light music concerts (such as the famous International Jazz Festival, held between 1956 and 1966), film and television productions, and a series of conferences and conventions with important personalities from the political, academic and scientific world.

The Gambling House complex extends over an area of more than 2500 square metres, divided, in the rooms intended for players, into the Gio Ponti room, designed by the architect of the same name in 1953, 441 metres wide and joined to the Privatissimo, in the Privè, in the "500 room", 101 metres wide, adorned with a series of valuable eighteenth-century paintings and equipped with a beautiful fireplace that leads to the common room where the large blown-glass chandeliers in art nouveau style are particularly noteworthy, in the De Santis room, also known as the Yellow room, 608 metres wide and home to American games, and in the slot-machine room, currently arranged on two floors.

The Casino of Sanremo also houses some sculptures of great artistic interest, such as the famous statue of Cica-Cica, sculpted by Odoardo Tabacchi, a professor at the Accademia Albertina in Turin and won by the City of Sanremo as the third prize in a lottery held to contribute to the expenses of the National Exhibition in Turin in 1884.
Temporarily placed in the Town Hall in Palazzo Nota, the statue was then moved to its present location, also because of its alleged indecency, which would not have been appropriate for a serious and official environment such as the seat of the municipal institution.

The girl's particular plea against bad luck, which she makes with her hands and from which her curious name derives, as well as the beauty of the work, has meant that the sculpture is still considered a sort of good luck charm for the Casino's customers. The Tabacchi statue was recently restored on the initiative of the Famija Sanremasca and under the supervision of experts from the Superintendence for Artistic and Historical Heritage of Liguria.

Another notable sculptural work housed in a room at the Casino is a precious copy of the Fisherman, the famous statue by Vincenzo Gemito (1852-1929), the original of which is exhibited in a room of the Bargello National Museum in Florence.
The realistic bronze, depicting a young boy in the very moment in which he plucks a fish from the hook, is signed by the Neapolitan artist and would be the product of a rather late casting, after 1929 and perhaps no longer finished by the artist.

(sources: text by Andrea Gandolfo; images from private archives and the web)