The Hotel Punta Tragara is, with Villa Malaparte, one of the most admired and celebrated examples of modern Capri architecture.
In 1920 the Milanese engineer Emilio Errico Vismara bought land in Tragara where only the Trattoria Carmela and the studio of the pianist Renata Borgatti stood.
In the Roman period, as Svetonio writes, in that area stood the Villa of the Emperor Augustus, one of the most beautiful and luxurious on the island. Vismara, of socialist faith, had made a fortune with the electrification of Sicily and in Capri he founded the Sippic and the SIA by acquiring the Albergo Quisisana and the Albergo Pagano. It gave birth to the Stracasa where the incredible intertwining of arches and vaults created a unique architectural jewel on the sea. At first he wanted to open a casino, then he decided to build a villa where he could host writers, poets and artists.
Guest in 1937 was the architect Le Corbusier who in an article on Domus will write how the Stracasa is “a villa without architects…. an emanation of the rock, a figliation of the island, a vegetable phenomenon, almost an architectural lichen, grown on the side of Capri”. On his notebooks he will redraw, in the smallest details, the villa that will always be a source of inspiration for his future works in France.
Vismara also bought other properties in Tragara. In one of these houses, the kennel, the future villa of Tirelli, he welcomed his dogs. After the flight of Vismara to France, for political reasons, it became a luxury Rest-camp. It hosted the American generals Clark and Eisenhower and the English premier Churcill who reserved rooms overlooking the Faraglioni and, sipping whiskies and smoking his cigars, made long swimming from Luigi to the Faraglioni forgetting the war.
The Count Manfredi buys it from Marchese Raggio in 1968 and transforms it in 1973 into a luxury hotel. In the place where was the Trattoria Carmela, the first inn of Capri, famous for its ravioli with marjoram of Pizzo Lungo, rabbit with peas and soup married with wild herbs, is the Restaurant Monzù led by star chef Luigi Lionetti. Every end of June the hotel hosts the literary review “Le Conversazioni”, organized by the journalist and writer Antonio Monda, where writers from all over the world meet in the Piazzetta di Tragara, on the problems of humanity.
Culture
Villa Malaparte: History and Facts about Capri’s Most Iconic Villa
Villa Malaparte, built between 1938 and 1942 on the Punta Massullo promontory, is one of Capri’s most recognizable architectural landmarks. Commissioned by Curzio Malaparte and traditionally associated with architect Adalberto Libera, it is distinguished by its red structure built directly onto the rock, its large trapezoidal staircase, and the curved white wall of its terrace. The villa also became famous through Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Contempt. Today, it is privately owned and is considered one of the most important examples of 20th-century Italian architecture.
2 July 2026
