Palazzina Azzurra

The acknowledgement of the tourist vocation of S. Benedetto del Tronto dates back to the last decade of the XIXth century, when the first hotels and bathing establishments were born. During the following years the awareness that tourist flows had a positive effect on the local economy became stronger and initiatives from the local community to adapt and ameliorate the town accommodation facilities increased.

In 1931 the Azienda di Promozione Turistica (the Tourist Promotion Board) charged the young engineer Mr Luigi Onorati with the task of improving both the aesthetic and tourist impact of the area close to the railway station and the very central walk Secondo Moretti. Among the various works of improvement there was the implementation of the sea-front avenue (at present the so called Rotonda and Viale Buozzi).

The promenade, officially opened in 1932, was 30 metres wide (18 of actual street-bed and 12 of sidewalk) and therefore was considered enormous by the people. Today it is one of the widest and most spectacular sea-front avenues of our Country.

This is the context in which the Palazzina Azzurra is located: it is indeed a symbol of the local tourism, once the seat of the Tourist Promotion Board, then one of the most claimed dancings all along the Adriatic coast. Today, after an accurate restoration which regained its original shape and colours, Palazzina Azzura hosts art exhibitions and a public garden rich with plants and multi coloured flowers.