Among the memoirs of minerva stays stendhal and george sand and the extraordinary visits like that of pope pius ix who came to meet cardinal aguirre bishop of guayaquir today the grand hotel de la minerve is continually cited as a meeting place for intellectuals appointments to make only the grand hotel de la minerve also contributes a collection of statues the aforementioned minerva in the lobby the other in the ground floor lounge olympus the works of sculptor rinaldo rinaldi the seco