Castel Hörtenberg
Studio GDS
It’s in the formal dining room that the magic of Castel Hörtenberg becomes apparent. Deep in the wine cellar, down two or three flights of stairs from the streets of Bolzano, Italy, the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, aptly called Le Segrete, is dramatic and moody. The marketers use the phrase ancient dungeons to describe a transformation that pays tribute to the castle’s mysterious past.
The lighting today is soft and the furnishings are minimalist, the better to focus attention on the patinated stones of the meticulously restored barrel vaults. Weathered old wine barrels are used as staging areas for the servers. Soft light shines from glass orbs that hang from the ceiling, casting everything in a flattering, romantic glow.
This is not to say that the rest of the hotel is not magical. Quite the contrary. When it opened a few years ago, it was the first—and is still the only—five-star hotel in the prosperous capital of South Tyrol. It’s also the first hotel in this city at the edge of the Dolomites (also called Bozen, a reflection of its dual German-Italian identity) to be a destination in its own right.
Le Segrete
Courtesy of the hotel
Still, the magic is often subtle. “The history is not so amazing,” admits Stefano Noviello, the hotel’s general manager and head of hospitality for the Podini Group, a family company based in Bolzano. Parts of today’s Castel Hörtenberg were built 700 years ago as a large medieval farmhouse. It eventually grew into a noble estate for the von Hörtenberg family, who transferred and sold it to other families. The Podinis bought it in 2007.
But Noviello, who worked at Hotel Bauer (soon to be a Rosewood) in Venice, knows a quality hospitality project when he sees one. He calls Castel Hörtenberg “an immersion in tranquility and elegance, [an] oasis of peace [that] blends seamlessly with its surroundings.” That seamlessness is somewhat due to the Podini Group, which is not only local but one of the oldest family companies (with no name or ownership changes) in Italy, a billion-euro enterprise with interests in construction, real estate, food, wine and green energy.
Castel Hörtenberg is the first hospitality project from the group, which is planning more hotels that will be outside South Tyrol but similar in spirit. The first impression of the castle building is its solemnity: oat gray, sturdy, symmetrical. The hotel literature explains that it was designed in the unique Oltradige style (also known as Überetscher Stil), which blends Gothic elements with Tuscan Renaissance flair. Flair is perhaps not the first word that comes to mind, but the restrained building is undeniably handsome.
A guest suite on the garden floor
Courtesy of the hotel
Inside, its stylish interiors, including 24 guest suites, reflect the cosmopolitan vision and aesthetic sense of Anna Podini. In line with today’s European hotel trends, she used modern and contemporary elements to accentuate the house’s prestigious past. (Restraint guided her as well, and while the art collection includes some striking pieces, she didn’t make the sort of big bet on digital works and NTFs that some high-profile openings elsewhere have.)
At the entrance, there’s a life-size statue of a woman’s upper torso and legs, a slash of empty space torn through (but not so torn through as to take the slouchy valise from her hand); the work, by artist Bruno Catalano, symbolizes continuity and transformation and serves as an “ode to the traveler.” The reception beyond it, however, is minimalist, with soothing straight lines to temper the flair of the original rounded arches. Further beyond, the breakfast room and bar occupy former stables for horses and cows.
The suites are likewise minimalist, with exactingly chosen pastel color palettes, tone-on-tone canvases and made-to-measure furnishings by South Tyrolean artisans such as Rainhard Messer, Gamba 1918 and the lighting designers at Lichstudio. The original frescoes and stuccos of the rooms on the second floor have been elegantly restored, bucolic vineyard and mountain views define those on the third floor, and there’s a full-on attic vibe on the top floor, with Swiss pine and spruce wood forming the steeply pitched roofs. These two (literal) top suites are more than 700 square feet and have impressive 20-foot-high ceilings with exposed beams.
A top suite
Courtesy of the hotel
The garden also impresses with a swimming pool for summer months and considerable aesthetic appeal year-round. It was designed with 50 plant species, including Lebanon cedars, holm oaks, pines, cypress, walnuts, pomegranates and a historic olive tree. It’s calm and quiet enough to make one forget the city outside—even though Castel Hörtenberg is integrated into the posh Dodiciville residential neighborhood and just a short walk from Bolzano’s main square.
In warm months, meals are served in that garden, either poolside or amid the golden lilies and violet hydrangeas. But in winter, they’re back in that magical dungeon. Rising star chef Armin Elezi’s cooking fits perfectly into the dramatic space. He’s a fan of ancient fermentation techniques and bold pairings that go heavy on the umami: celeriac ravioli with grape extract and cabbage, beef tartare with beetroot gel and apple, tagliolini with butter, miso and truffle.
There are the usual trappings (and trends) of fine dining, circa 2025—the network of small local producers, the house-aged meats, the cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil from a family-owned estate on Lake Garda, the artisanal smoking methods of the salmon that’s on offer at breakfast—but here it makes sense. It’s part of a bigger commitment to not only doing things right, but also to doing them well.
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