Ugo Giusti - Architect

From a modest family, at just seventeen he earned a scholarship from the Professional School of Decorative and Industrial Arts of Santa Croce. He later enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. He graduated in architectural drawing and, starting in 1905, he took on the chair of architectural drawing in the same Academy where he graduated.

In 1907 he joined the Giovane Etruria society, founded by the painter Plinio Nomellini, which included prominent names in the artistic Florence of the early 1900s. Galileo Chini had also joined the group, having already founded his own workshop, "L'Arte della Ceramica" in 1897. The friendship between the two was great. For Chini, Giusti designed and built the factory and showroom of the Fornaci Borghigiane that were destroyed in the bombings of 1943, the house (1909) and the studio (1914) in via del Ghirlandaio in Florence and the Villa Chini in Lido di Camaiore, the family's holiday home. Already consolidated for some time, this friendship favored close collaboration in the construction of the grandiose Berzieri spa in Salsomaggiore. With his friend the architect Giulio Bernardini, Giusti worked in Montecatini Terme, intervening in 1909 in the expansion of the Tamerici spa and in 1914 in the design of the renovation of the Tettuccio, Regina and Savi spas. However, for reasons that have never been fully clarified, the project never saw the light of day. Also in Montecatini he completed the construction of the Excelsior Municipal Casino, inaugurated in 1907, later, in 1915, renovated and converted into a spa.
Giusti, together with Chini, was the protagonist of the construction of the Berzieri spa in Salsomaggiore. The works started in 1914 in collaboration with the engineer Giulio Bernardini, proceeded very slowly, also because of the war, (in 1918 Bernardini retired) and ended only in 1923.

In addition to the spa architecture, Giusti was also very active in the hospitality sector: he was responsible for the renovation of buildings such as the Locanda Maggiore in Montecatini, the Hotel Brunelleschi, Albergo Roma, Grand Hotel in Florence, the Grand Hotel Des Thermes in Salsomaggiore.
In 1923 he was director of the works for the expansion of the monumental cemetery of Antella.

As regards sacred architecture, his most significant works are the church of S. Antonio in Montecatini Terme and the renovation of the church of S. Michele in Figliano, near Borgo S. Lorenzo, after the damage suffered by the earthquake of 1919. Also in Borgo San Lorenzo, the headquarters of the Arciconfraternita di Misericordia stands out, a work that was completed and inaugurated only shortly after his death due to an incurable disease in 1928 at only 48 years of age.

His premature death did not allow Giusti to finish the work on the seafront promenade in Viareggio after a furious fire in 1917 devastated all the buildings, mostly made of wood and iron.