The Place
After the castle, the Hotel Diana is architecturally one of the most important buildings in Tossa de Mar. A family town house built on the central Plaza d’Espana in the 1850s, and backing on to the main promenade, it became a hotel a hundred years later. Today, when it opens for the summer season, it attracts an international clientele of art-nouveau-lovers.
The entire building is a tribute to the period, with a Gaudi roof faced with characteristic broken turquoise tiles, stained glass windows, a sweeping marble staircase and original Gaudi fireplace. The central salon contains art-nouveau frescoes, which have recently been restored, and a bronze fountain in naked female form by the Catalan sculptor Mares; light streams in through the glass roof three storeys above. The bedrooms are set in the surrounding gallery. With their high arched ceilings, marble floors and grand wooden shutters, they have plenty to offer in terms of style. Breakfast is taken either on the sea-front terrace or in the inner courtyard.
In 1989, after a period on lease, the Diana was returned to its original owners, a local hotel-owning family, who are continuing to carry out extensive refurbishment.