The Stanglwirt was born out of a problem 500 years ago.
In 1564, when plague reached the Tyrolean town of Kitzbühel in Austria, resident Wolfgang Widmer threw open the doors of his home to local miners, offering food and wine to remedy their ills. Four generations later, the property passed into the hands of Hans Stangl, who gave it the name it retains. And in 1722, it fell into the possession of the Hauser family, who are still its innkeepers today — 11 generations later.
Stanglwirt continues to be a temple to rest and recuperation, spread over a sprawling complex of alpine chalets in green meadows at the foot of the Wilder Kaiser mountain range. One journalist described it as “Slim Aarons with a touch of Smurfs’ village.” Proprietor Balthasar Hauser, now in his eighties, insists it isn’t actually a hotel, but a 130-acre organic farm with five-star rooms attached.
For example, breakfast each day includes freshly baked bread with home-made cheeses aged in a nearby cave, and eggs from a coop on the children’s farm. At dinner, still served in the old inn, bowls of steaming goulash and plates of giant schnitzel are presented to a chorus of battered cowbells — the building doubles as a barn, where the hotel’s cattle herd return to each evening from the pastures. Here, each January, Arnold Schwarzenegger presides over Stanglwirt’s annual, and famously raucous, Weisswurstparty — or white sausage party.
It’s also a sporting place, too. Wooden signs point to various turf-topped huts that house a driving range, tennis courts, and a gym complex where men in Lederhosen helped train Wladimir Klitschko and Tyson Fury for their world titles. The huge spa complex next door includes five saunas, three cold plunges and the largest saltwater pool in Europe, which is fed by the hotel’s own spring (the liquid is so pure it’s served in carafes throughout the resort).
Another path leads to an old farmstead, which houses around a dozen sparkling white Lipizzaner ponies. Brass name plaques screwed into the stable walls list their names, like ‘Ancona’ and ‘Siggy’. Every morning they trot past guests in the bar, heading to fields for grazing.
Yet none of this comes at the expense of the hotel. Log cabin-style rooms, reached via wooden elevators that contain complimentary ‘emergency’ shot glasses of schnapps, are filled with lit-fireplaces and sheep-skin rugs. The bedsheets are even infused with pine oil, which is said to lower the heart rate and calm the nervous system. Each evening, women in Drindls knock on the door with baskets of chocolates.
For decades, Stanglwirt has been a pioneer of the eco-hotel movement — way before it was an industry buzz term. The hotel is entirely run on a state-of-the-art biofuel system. It’s also paved the way for Austria’s famous, family-friendly ‘Kinderhotels’, but where others are at risk of over-bougiefication, Stanglwirt leans on its rustic charm, offering something like a holiday from The Sound of Music.
It’s little wonder that 80 per cent of guests are repeat clients. For many of them, a visit is a long-standing family tradition. Lots of them are famous: photos on one wall reveal some of the most illustrious clients: Audrey Hepburn, Hilary Clinton, Bing Crosby, Muhammad Ali, Prince Albert of Monaco and the Dalai Llama have all enjoyed Stanglwirt. One photo indicates that Mother Theresa even once stopped by for a wellness retreat.
Article by Harry Seymour
Images courtesy of Stanglwirt