Ca Fosca was born more than twenty-five years ago, as often happens with the places we grow to love: almost by chance, almost by destiny. The penthouse is located on the fourth floor of a late-nineteenth-century Art Nouveau building, a house that still preserves the spirit of Bologna’s old artisan tradition. It was built by some of the city’s most renowned bakers, whose workshop—today one of the most celebrated and photographed in Bologna—still operates on the ground floor, bearing witness to the deep bond between this corner of the historic centre and its heritage.
On the windows of our floor, elegant Art Nouveau stone engravings still survive: wheat stalks and intertwined initials, symbols of the ancient Guild of Arts and Crafts that gave life to the building, small timeless emblems carved in place.

You reach Ca Fosca through an extraordinary elevator: wood-framed, glass-panelled, gently oval, held within a floral wrought-iron cage in perfect Liberty style. It is said to have been the first elevator ever built in Bologna, an engineering marvel that endures, suspended between wonder and memory.

The decision to open this space to guests dates back to the early 2000s. At that time Bologna did not yet have the international energy it has today; in the height of summer, the first travellers arrived exhausted by the heat, discovering a city both enchanting and devoid of services. From that encounter came Patrizia’s desire to transform the attic into a home with many faces: a place capable of welcoming, offering respite, and revealing an authentic fragment of Bolognese life.
The penthouse also carried with it a particular legacy: that of the world of high fashion, from which its owner came. A story made of fabrics, sketches, and meticulous craftsmanship—a sensibility that still seems to resonate in the lines and details of the house.

A family tradition of hospitality then grew almost naturally over the years, preserving the original intention: to open the door so that others might experience a piece of this place—and of this city—and, at the same time, to let those who host travel through the stories of their guests.

Today Ca Fosca is reinventing itself once again. More than twenty years after the arrival of the first visitors, Fosca chooses to expand this legacy: keeping the rooms alive while adding new services and different forms of hospitality, from events to tailor-made experiences. She does so above all to share this space with as many people as possible, so that anyone who enters may slip into a suspended, softly undefined time, where history, art, and a love for the good life coexist with the scent of freshly baked bread rising from the bakery at dawn.