Now in its 21st year, the Parasol Foundation recently completed one of its most ambitious local projects to date – bringing the event hall at The Mount next to Loreto Convent back to life. The Foundation – whose principal benefactress is Ruth Parasol, who listed PartyGaming in Gibraltar and has spent over 20 years on the Rock – has sunk a considerable amount of resource (£750,000 and counting) into bringing the Hall back to its former glory.
Established in Gibraltar in 2004, the Parasol Foundation has awarded more than £40m in health, heritage and education grants in Gibraltar, UK, Israel, India, US, Spain and elsewhere. The Event Hall building – a former ballroom and now formally known as Parasol Event Hall – forms part of the vast Mount complex whose principal house was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1799 to house the Admiral, its most senior officer in Gibraltar.
“After lying practically derelict for so many years, the Parasol Event Hall is now a gleaming testament to what can be done if the right attitude and capital investment is harnessed to maximum effect.”
— Gibraltar Business Magazine (Winter 2025 – Spring 2026)
After lying practically derelict for so many years, the Parasol Event Hall is now a gleaming testament to what can be done if the right attitude and capital investment is harnessed to maximum effect. Cream walls on the outside are framed by restored original timber shutters, while the interior now features the old trusses which have been exposed. In a nod to the past, windows can be opened the way they would have been back in the day – using hand cranks attached to levers and letting light flood into the airy space.
Reflecting The Mount’s naval past
As well as the restored building itself, along with a new commercial kitchen and toilet facilities, a considerable amount of new weatherproof decking has been installed. That will allow functions such as weddings to take place outside under several canopies designed in the form of sails to reflect The Mount’s naval past. Even those humble toilets after installation unveiled old stonework in the shape of an arch which has been retained and woven into a large window.
The immediate environs of Parasol Event Hall have also been extensively landscaped capitalising on the area’s natural beauty, which continued to be cultivated during the Great Siege and which includes old magnolia, cypress and palm trees, as well as conifers overlooking the Bay of Gibraltar. The Parasol Foundation has now handed Parasol Event Hall keys to No 6, while the 33,000-square-metre site holds vast potential for further restoration.
A labour of love & community engagement
Two of the Foundation’s key advisors, who took on the project as a labour of love, Nyreen Llamas and Stefanie Brancato, explained their thinking behind the mammoth undertaking. They highlighted that there has to be a streamlined vision for the entire site of which the Parasol Event Hall is only the start — balancing the use and enjoyment of the site by the community with appropriate resources to maintain its upkeep.
Other key players in the Parasol Event Hall’s rebirth have been Government Projects Director Carl Viagas, Gibraltar Joinery and Building Services Limited (GJBS), project managers Carduus Limited and architects Arc Designs. Women’s projects are also significant for the Foundation, especially in science, technology, education and maths, including donating $3.5m to the Women’s Breast Cancer Research Center at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and more than £1m in grants to the University of Gibraltar.
Weddings & “Philanthropy comes with all of us”
So now the ribbon has been cut on the Parasol Event Hall, what could it be used for? The Rock is extremely popular for weddings; at peak matrimonial season, there can be 12 couples tying the knot in just one day, so the Parasol Event Hall can now be another addition to existing venues such as Alameda Gardens, Rock Hotel, Sunborn and City Hall, with revenue from weddings ploughed back into maintaining and developing The Mount site.
For Ruth Parasol, Gibraltar was significant in her success in business and her home, but it was also relevant to her father and mentor, Richard Parasol, whose early backstory and connection with Gibraltar (having seen Gibraltar from a boat docked in the Bay post-WWII) is astonishing. Having survived the Czestochowa ghetto in Poland as a hidden child during WWII and trekked across Europe, he studied mechanical engineering in California and built a five-decade career as a real estate developer in San Francisco before passing away at the age of 88. Ruth Parasol chose to mark the Foundation’s 21st anniversary on The Mount as a memorial to Richard Parasol.