La Fiermontina Palazzo Bozzi Corso – a boxer's palazzo in Lecce

In the historic heart of Lecce, a few steps from the Basilica of Santa Croce, a 1775 palazzo commissioned by Marquis Gabriele Bozzicorso has become one of Puglia's most closely watched small hotels. La Fiermontina Palazzo Bozzi Corso holds just ten suites, each devoted to a chapter in the story of the Fiermonte-Filali family, whose most celebrated ancestor, the boxer and actor Enzo Fiermonte, fought at Madison Square Garden before marrying the American heiress Lady Astor. Siblings Antonia and Giacomo-Fouad Filali restored the austere Baroque façade and filled the rooms with works tied to Fernand Léger, sculptors Jacques Zwobada and René Letourneur, and even drawings by John Lennon. The MICHELIN Guide gives it Two MICHELIN Keys, recognising a palazzo that treats its own family history as a private art collection rather than a decorative theme, in a city whose honey-coloured stone and master masons have shaped southern Italian Baroque for centuries.

01The house

The palazzo was raised in 1775 for Marquis Gabriele Bozzicorso, probably on the footprint of an earlier sixteenth-century residence. This historical palace was originally build by Gabriele Bozzi Corso in 1775, probably on the remains of a pre-existing XVI century building. The design is credited to Emanuele Manieri, one of the city's most accomplished Baroque architects, whose 18th century design gained a touch of modernity and refined hospitality through the more recent work of the Fiermonte-Filali family. The building later passed through aristocratic and institutional hands, including the Zecca family: in 1879 the Palace became the property of another aristocratic family, the Conti Zecca, who in turn passed it on to the Vergine-Indraccolo family during the second half of the last century.

In its current form, the palazzo is the work of Antonia and Giacomo-Fouad Filali, who established a luxury boutique hotel that showcases not just Lecce's architectural history but the family's extensive art-world connections as well, naming the property for the Fiermonte branch of the family — one of its ten suites is named for Lady Astor, to whom Enzo Fiermonte was married. The restoration kept the building's bones intact: the ornate façade, arched entrance and marble staircase are as grand as they were in the days when dukes came to stay, but they're now complemented by high design from the current age – grey velvet armchairs, sculptural lamps and sofas with a mirror-like sheen.

02Rooms and suites

The ten suites are arranged across the palazzo's noble floors, traditionally grouped into two 'Classic Rooms', four 'Aristocratic Suites' and four 'Wellness Suites', the latter equipped with a double hydromassage shower or a private sauna. Each room carries a name from the family's art circle: the Fernand Léger suite is full of works by the French modernist painter, and the John & Yoko Wellness suite is similarly dedicated to its namesakes, alongside quarters devoted to sculptors Zwobada and Letourneur and to Lady Astor herself.

Insider tip

Best reached on foot; the old town's narrow streets are largely pedestrian and not suited to driving.

Furnishing leans on genuine design pedigree rather than pastiche: suites are dressed with bespoke furniture alongside notable pieces by Sottsass, Gio Ponti, Mackintosh and Le Corbusier. The wellness-category rooms go further still — the Wellness Suite Jacques Zwobada has a large whirlpool tub, while the Wellness Suite René Letourneur is graced with a double whirlpool shower — set beneath antique ceilings and restored stuccowork that date to the palazzo's eighteenth-century fabric.

03Where to eat

The palazzo keeps its own kitchen to a single meal: breakfast is the extent of the kitchen's offerings, but the location in the heart of old Lecce means a wealth of options lie within a few minutes' walk from the hotel's front door. For dinner, the Fiermontina family's own Zéphyr Restaurant, at the sister property a short walk away, is offered as part of the experience — La Fiermontina brings art to your stay, while Zéphyr Restaurant transforms dining into an experience.

Breakfast itself leans on produce bought that morning: in the group's wider Lecce operation, the Palazzo's chef picks herself the fruit and vegetables she needs to create personalized gourmet meals, a habit that extends to the Bozzi Corso kitchen's cappuccinos and pasticciotti served in the garden or on the rooftop.

04Spa and wellbeing

Wellness is folded into the palazzo rather than built as a separate wing. The in-house Relaxarium offers a natural stone hydromassage pool, a 'relaxarium' and a massage room where personalised treatments and wellness activities are arranged with guests, alongside a small private gym. Above it all, an elegant rooftop terrace with a plunge pool and beautiful views over the rooftops of Lecce doubles as a yoga deck at sunrise.

At ground level, guests have the run of a two-hundred square metre secret garden, all just for you, offering a quiet space to read and relax — a rare amount of private green space inside Lecce's dense old town.

05The neighbourhood

Lecce has long been nicknamed "the Florence of the south", once besotted by baroque architecture, a legacy that endures inside the city's storied walls. The palazzo sits inside that fabric rather than on its fringes, a few minutes' walk from the Duomo and Basilica Santa Croce, with the amphitheatre-studded Piazza Sant'Oronzo and the triumphal Porta Napoli also within easy reach on foot.

The result is a stay built around walking: honey-stone alleys, workshops of papier-mâché and stone-carving, and the baroque church façades for which the city is known are all a short stroll from Via Umberto I.

06Making the most of a stay

The palazzo's two MICHELIN Keys sit alongside other independent recognition for the property within Puglia's small-hotel scene, part of a wider push by the Filali family's collection toward connoisseur-level hospitality rather than scale. Guests have the option of booking a single suite or the house entire: ten suites, starting from EUR 6,500.00 per night, with a total capacity of 26 guests, turning the palazzo into a private home for a family gathering or a wedding party.

Staying here also opens doors across the family's wider Lecce holdings — guests have access to the sister properties' services, La Fiermontina Luxury Home and Fiermonte Museum, which features a collection of contemporary works by the family and their influential friends, making a single reservation a way into several addresses at once.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.