RELAIS SAN GIULIANO
A BOUTIQUE HOTEL DE CHARME IN A HISTORIC SICILIAN RESIDENCE
TIMELESS EMOTIONS IN THE TERROIR OF ETNA
The name alone tells you something warm about this historic Sicilian residence.
It was the Marchesi Paternò Castello di San Giuliano who first transformed this manor, likely built on the foundations of a fortified 1600s farmhouse. The story had its share of twists, but a happy ending too.
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Discover the pleasure of a Sicilian relais, with SPA, restaurant and pool
REDISCOVERING THE SAN GIULIANO MANOR
Sheltered by Etna and Mount Serra, this Viagrande estate became the noble Catanian family’s main summer residence in the 1700s. They refined it with elegant architecture and made it the setting for their biggest celebrations, weddings included.
The manor’s façade opens onto a large, cross-shaped inner courtyard, flanked by a dramatic pincer staircase. Fine Caltagirone ceramics once covered the floors throughout the main building, though most were lost after the estate was abandoned in the late 1800s.
FROM PAST TO PRESENT
Two blocks of rustic buildings flank the courtyard garden, laid out with geometric flower beds. They once housed the massaro, the stables, the cart house, the wine cellar and the palmento. Today they hold our welcoming rooms and suites, the Sabbia Nera SPA, the iPalici restaurant, and the Palmento del Serra lounge bar & bistro.
This corner of Sicily built its fortune on the vineyards surrounding the estate, and the Marchesi di San Giuliano made the most of it right up until the late 1800s.
THE RELAIS IS REBORN
Today’s Relais San Giuliano exists because the Gruttadauria Aiello family saw beauty here, even after decades of neglect had faded it, and set their hearts on saving it.
Even the garden has come back to life, its restored scents of carob and other Mediterranean plants reconnecting us to a past that was never truly lost. It’s careful, patient work and proof that anything worth saving deserves a future.