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The Ashbee Hotel
Taormina, Italy · Independent · Core Luxury
Colonel Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier was seventy when he left England for Sicily and asked his friend Charles Robert Ashbee, the Arts and Crafts architect, to build him a house above the Strait of Messina. Villa San Giorgio went up between 1907 and 1909 behind the church of San Pancrazio, and the Colonel had barely two years in it before he died. Since 2011 it has been a 24-room hotel, and its dining room, St. George by Heinz Beck, now holds two Michelin stars.
- 24 rooms
- Opened 2011
- Neighborhood: San Pancrazio
- Rooms from 344 sq ft (32 m²)
- Architect: Charles Robert Ashbee
About The Ashbee Hotel
- Ashbee laid the foundation stone on St George's Day, 23 April 1908, under a Masonic dedication to the Great Architect of the Universe that named the patron, the architect and the local builders.
- St. George by Heinz Beck was the Rome three-star chef's first Sicilian kitchen when it opened in 2017. It took its first Michelin star in 2019 and holds two today, cooked by resident chef Salvatore Iuliano.
- Ashbee's original drawings for the villa are kept in the Royal Institute of British Architects collection, and the photographic record of the build sits in the Victoria and Albert Museum's national art library.
- Ashbee was in Sicily for the catastrophic 1908 Messina earthquake, which he described in the diaries now held at King's College, Cambridge. Of the island he wrote, "Sicily is a land for Architects."
- Entry-level rooms start at 344 sq ft (32 m²).
History
Colonel Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier, an English army veteran and sometime director of the Royal Military School of Music, was seventy years old when he gave up Staffordshire for Taormina. He bought a plot behind the church of San Pancrazio, looking out over the Strait of Messina, and in January 1907 invited his friend Charles Robert Ashbee down for a few days. Ashbee, born in London in 1863 and one of the central figures of the Arts and Crafts movement after William Morris, stayed long enough to fall for the island. "Sicily is a land for Architects," he wrote after touring Syracuse and Agrigento, and he took the commission.
The foundation stone of Villa San Giorgio was laid on St George's Day, 23 April 1908, with a Masonic dedication naming Shaw-Hellier, Ashbee and the Sicilian builders. The house was finished in the summer of 1909. What makes it worth looking at is the join: Sicilian vernacular stonework and courtyard planning handled by an English designer who believed a house had to belong to the social life around it. Ashbee was on the island for the December 1908 Messina earthquake and wrote about the horror of it in the diaries now at King's College, Cambridge. His drawings for the villa went to the Royal Institute of British Architects; the photographs of the build went to the Victoria and Albert Museum library.
The Colonel enjoyed the house for barely two years and died there on 23 December 1910, aged 74. It stayed with his great nieces until at least 1940. The villa opened as The Ashbee Hotel in April 2011, was rated five stars in 2012, and joined The Leading Hotels of the World in 2014. In 2017 it brought in Heinz Beck, the three-star chef of La Pergola in Rome, for his first Sicilian restaurant; St. George won a Michelin star in 2019 and holds two.
The setting
The hotel stands on Viale San Pancrazio at the edge of Taormina's historic centre, a few minutes' walk from Corso Umberto and the Greek theatre. Its neighbour, the church of San Pancrazio, was raised on the ruins of a Greek temple to Serapis and Zeus, which is a fair summary of how this hill works: every layer sits on an older one. By the time Shaw-Hellier arrived, Taormina had a settled Anglo-German colony of artists, aesthetes and exiles. Robert Hawthorn Kitson had built Casa Cuseni just up the slope around 1905, and the photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden had been working here for two decades. The terrace looks across the Strait of Messina to the Calabrian coast, with Mount Etna to the south.
Restaurants and bars
- St. George Restaurant by Heinz Beck — Restaurant · Chef Heinz Beck · Two MICHELIN Stars
- The Ashbee Bar — Bar
Experiences
- Infinity Pool — Infinity pool at the hotel.
- Gym with a View — Gym with a view at the hotel.
- The Ashbee Life — Listed among the hotel's facilities.
- Roof Terrace — Roof terrace at the hotel.
Amenities
- The A Garden
- Panoramic Terrace
- Quote and enquiry form for weddings
Awards
- MICHELIN One Key (2026)
Open The Ashbee Hotel in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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