Fernando Juan Santiago Francisco María Piria de Grossi (

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, 21 August 1847 - 11 December 1933) was a Uruguayan inventor,

alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, writer,

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and businessman of Italian descent. He was notable for establishing the city and seaside resort known as

Piriápolis Piriápolis is a city in the Maldonado Department of Uruguay. It is an important summer resort in the country, predating the larger and better known resort town of Punta del Este. Because it is mainly used as a resort, it has a relatively small per ...

Background

Piria was a son of Genoese immigrants Lorenzo Piria and Serafina de Grossi. The premature death of his father caused his mother to send him to study in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Back to

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, under the supervision of his uncle, he received the best training of the time in humanities and sciences. Later he opened a workshop where he sold ready-to-wear clothing on the corner of Treinta y Tres and Rincón streets. Endowed with an exceptional business acumen, which was not lagging behind his advertising inventiveness, he bought thousands of yards of thick fabric and had a kind of long capes made, which he named Rémington.

Piriápolis

Francisco Piria was in charge of creating the first seaside resort town in Uruguay. In 1890 he bought 2700 hectares of land, an extension that stretched from Sugar Loaf Mountain to the sea, and in 1905 he built the first Grand Hotel, called Hotel Piriápolis (today, Colonia Escolar de Vacaciones). In 1910 he began the construction of the promenade, where he was inspired by his trips to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, more precisely to the French Riviera. In 1912, the first auction of lots in Piriápolis was held and, from then on, the city began to grow with the construction of numerous villas. He also made a big house called the Piria Castle which also has a reproduction in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Legacy

Shortly after the grand opening, Francisco Piria died on December 11, 1933, but, as Loreley Lazo, a contemporary national poet closely linked to this hotel, said, "Piria can be found in everything his iron will created. He was a man who had a dream, made it real and lives in it". Part of Francisco Piria's legacy was documented in the feature film Ciudadano Piria, released in 2014. Francisco Piria died at the age of 86 at his home in

, suffering from pulmonary congestion, complicated by diabetes, uremia and heart weakness.

References

1847 births 1933 deaths 19th-century alchemists 20th-century alchemists Businesspeople from Montevideo Uruguayan people of Italian descent Uruguayan businesspeople Uruguayan alchemists Burials at Cementerio del Buceo, Montevideo {{Uruguay-business-bio-stub