Castello Devachan has been on Booking.com since June 2020. Currently, there is a problem with renting a holiday apartment there, but normally you can rent a 50-meter flat, including a TV, microwave, washing machine, with private parking. The complex has a pool and tennis courts, and the distance to the city center is short. Everything is very convenient.
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Except for the history. That's less convenient. For example, the fact that during World War II, when the beautiful and small city of San Remo was under Nazi occupation, the Castello served as the headquarters of the SS, and partisans were executed on the wall opposite the entrance.
Then, as now, the building was in private hands, then passed onto other private hands, over and over again. Perhaps that is why there is a disconnect between the historical and significant events that took place here, and the winding personal history, rich in intimate details and half-rumors, that took place within the walls of this villa.
As historians and locals seek to present the honorable timeline, stormy biographies emerge from the slits, indifferent to the great history recorded in those very spaces.
The construction of the Castello (or the Villa) took four years, and when it was completed in 1909 it was bought by an English nobleman, the Earl of Mexborough. During his military career, the Earl spent long periods in the Far East, and as happens to people to this day, his curious soul was captivated by the magic of the Orient and he adopted a Buddhist lifestyle. The villa, which was adorned with Hindu statues in the surrounding garden, was named Villa Sylvia Mexborough after his second wife, a young Italian widow.
But unfortunately, and without implying any short-sightedness to the gods placed in the garden, the young widow died prematurely. The 72-year-old Earl married a third wife, also a widow, and shortly after his marriage he changed the name of the villa to its current name: Castello Devachan. This term comes from Sanskrit and indicates the state of consciousness of the ego after the death of the body and before the pure soul is realized in another flesh.
This moment of grace is characterized, it seems, by a blessed but fleeting serenity. This was also the fate of the Earl's fresh marriage. Shortly after changing the name of the building, he died and made his third wife a widow for the second time. This was in 1916, and the villa was only seven years old.
Remains of a shipwreck
When the San Remo Conference convened in one of the rooms of the villa in April 1920, it was already in the hands of another man: Mr. Edoardo Mercegaglia, a businessman from Turin. Mercegaglia generously lent his property to the Italian government so that it could hold the peace conference discussions there.
Without a doubt this was one of the highlights of the villa's history. The conference was watched closely by the local and global press and captivated those who followed the discussions. Of course, among these were also many Jewish communities around the world and in Palestine, but not only they were anxiously awaiting its decisions.
In the city of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia), a group of Italian nationalists, led by Gabriele D'Annunzio, a poet, pilot and forerunner of Italian fascism, also followed the results of the conference. D'Annunzio and his group -- a great mix of artists, nomads, anarchists and just plain adventurers -- had conquered the city of Fiume a few months earlier, after it had been handed over to Yugoslavia at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The settlers now hoped that in the port city of San Remo the Italian government would order the annexation of Fiume to Italy.
They were to be disappointed. Italy did not support their position. And so, while the top leaders of the victorious countries sat in the elegant hall, determined the future of the Middle East and drew borders in Europe, D'Annunzio sat boiling in Fiume and drafted a letter full of vitriol, slandering the conference attendees, and even the villa itself. The letter was published on April 27, at the end of the hearings, and opened with the following words: "The peace conference convened in San Remo in a huge villa that excels in its bad taste, in which there is nothing noble but the ancient remains of my shipwreck."
When D'Annunzio writes angrily about the remains of his wrecked ship in the villa, he is certainly not delusional. In 1910, immersed in debt and heartbroken following the end of his professional and romantic relationship with the actress Eleonora Duse, who also supported him financially, D'Annunzio sold his belongings, including a wonderful iron gate that adorned the villa where he lived in Florence. The gate was bought by the Earl of Mexborough, the same English noble Buddhist who gave Villa Devachan its name, and it was he who placed it at its entrance.
The San Remo Conference, therefore, was a harsh provocation in the eyes of the glorious poet, and seemed to represent for him a double loss: national and personal. Not only did Italy, which he sought to lead towards a stronger future turn its back on him, it did so while sitting in a building adorned with his own former assets.
In the years following the San Remo Conference, the villa changed owners. By World War II, it was exhausted. There is no point in repeating what happened there during the war, which was mentioned earlier. The locals are aware of this and remember the dark period sadly.
Recognizing its importance
After World War II, the Castello moved between private owners. First it became a hotel, and after a few years went through major renovation. The white marble floor was removed and replaced with a multicolored floor, the entrance and the stairs leading to it -- the hallmark of the building -- were blocked from the inside to allow for the major changes made to its interior spaces. The private villa became a luxury shared residential building.
The room where the San Remo conference was held was converted into the apartment of a lovely lady, who allowed me to enter her house while she was abroad. Between the sofa, the television and the flower pots, stands in front of the refrigerator the fireplace that witnessed the discussions that led to the recognition of the right of the Jewish people to a national home in Palestine.
101 years after the San Remo Conference, the Israeli Embassy in Italy held a festive ceremony to commemorate the historic event. As part of this, a sign was put up in the building explaining its importance and linking the conference to the establishment of the State of Israel 28 years later. Will the Castello now finally recognize this importance that lies in its walls?
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