Pavel von Ritter was born on October 20, 1825, in St. Petersburg to a family of Germans from Lübeck, who founded a bank after moving to Russia. The family's business success allowed the banker’s son to receive an excellent education, and in 1844 he enrolled in the medical faculty of the Imperial Dorpat University, one of the oldest in the Russian Empire.

Later, Pavel served as a court marshal, managing supplies and, likely with German meticulousness, overseeing the diet of the courtiers. In 1863, he left his service in Russia and moved to Dresden, and ten years later, in 1873, he relocated to Lugano. Von Ritter was an active follower of Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, a German naturalist and philosopher, and even established a charitable foundation for the University of Jena, where Haeckel taught.

In 1880, Pavel von Ritter decided to settle in a quiet place and built Villa Castagnola. He contemplated phylogeny, studied the plankton of Lake Lugano, and was content with his life. However, in 1883, his tranquility was disrupted by news that delighted the residents of Lugano: federal shooting competitions were to take place on the neighboring Mars field by the Cassarate River. Shooters and spectators from all over Switzerland were arriving in Lugano.

"I will have no more peace, and I do not want to live on a shooting range," von Ritter decided and approached the local authorities with a request to move the event. They offered him temporary accommodation in a hotel, but he refused and, feeling offended, sold his house and moved to Basel, where he continued his scientific work.

Since 1885, the scientist's house became a hotel. Villa Castagnola has survived to this day, having been expanded, and is now a five-star hotel. But what about the castle that was blown up in 1961 and why is its dust called artistic? That is another story...