Santa Maria Foris: Hospitality Blending Byzantine Art and Contemporary Design

Ravenna’s Santa Maria Foris boutique hotel offers guests a tailored hospitality experience. Designed by architectAlvin Grassi, the interiors perfectly balance contemporary design with Byzantine art in an elegant and sophisticated fusion of memory, tradition, and innovation. Echoes of the past begin with the hotel’s name, taken from a 13th-century church. They continue with the architecture, with the entrance retaining an exposed section of the original stately home.The result of the careful restoration of this early mansion, the hotel is a charming property with twelve finely appointed rooms.

The designer devoted meticulous attention to every detail of the Santa Maria Foris, with the textiles, for example, thehighest quality, and the design elements and finishes crafted with utmost precision. Besides offering a high standard of comfort and hospitality, every room has its own unique personality. Effectively engaging with the building’s historic soul, the spatial language is contemporary and elegant. Clean lines, carefully selected materials, and decorative accents combine to create a coherent, refined aesthetic.

The project places a special emphasis on lighting, which was fully curated by QU, a firm specializing in the design and manufacture of high-tech decorative luminaires. The lighting design highlights volumes, textures, and architectural nuances, offering a warm, immersive visual experience. Rather than just lighting spaces, each luminaire subtly yet strikingly highlights details.

It’s as if each interior space has its own lighting design. On the stairs, for example, an unbroken line of light shows the way, with Studio 63 Tami Wall sconces creating a sense of verticality without interrupting the material-driven cadence. In the guest rooms and corridors, less substantial recessed, wall-mounted, and freestanding lights create intimate atmospheres. Fixtures like the Nausicaa Pop, a bidirectional luminaire providing both uplight and downlight, and the recessed Rocchetto Maxi O, which provides pinpoint illumination, define each environment. With its conical form and aluminum body, Duolì, designed by Aldo Parisotto of Parisotto+Formenton Architetti, adds a poetic note to the furniture surfaces with its warm, focused light. Finally, in the dining room, two Brillo Castello fixtures introduce a bolder yet still coherent presence.

The epicenter of the hotel’s outdoor areas, the secret garden is an intimate space where calm and privacy prevail. Like inside, the lighting doesn’t reveal everything at once but works with the materials, allowing the greenery and architecture to dialogue without interference. Here, Brillo fixtures create a floating, magical atmosphere. Positioned among the plants, they blend into the scene while enhancing it with translucence and reflections. Designed to blend in with the plaster, custom-finished Bellaria P2 fixtures effectively illuminate the façades and pathways with their understated presence.

Santa Maria Foris has further enriched its offerings in recent months with new wellness and social areas, including an elegant cocktail bar overlooking the inner garden, a laid-back lounge, and a small green haven that invites relaxation away from the busy city.

For more information: www.qu-lighting.com