GUAT ZSAM

You can tell a lot about the ElisabethHotel from outside its two buildings: Tyrolean tradition and contemporary design are at one here. The original building with the usual gables, balconies and cut-outs greets guests with warmth, while the minimal, curved structure elegantly suggests that you move with the times. In the interior of the hotel in Mayrhofen, this symbiosis continues in all its splendour. You experience how old and new work together – “guat zsam”, as they might say in Tyrolean dialect.

“Like a heartfelt handshake or a warm welcome” – that’s how Sebastian Moigg fromthe ElisabethHotel describes the effect of wood. And there’s a lot of it here. Wood is a traditional material used in the region, and appears in the hotel in a number of different forms, as well as being used in a progressive way. The lounges with furniture are entirely clad in wood, the hallways have untreated oak flooring and scorched pine from the north side of old buildings can be found in the rooms and corridors.

Other traditional Alpine materials include the basalt stone wall in the indoor pool, the ancient-looking rock in the outdoor relaxation pool and the sheep’s wool used for the rug on the floor. “Ultimately, it should be obvious that we are still in Zillertal, even if a lot of it is modern,” says interior designer Reinhard Strasser, who worked on the interiors alongside local furniture store Wetscher from nearby Fügen. Reinhard Strasser was particularly pleased with the headboard for the beds. “The pleated look and the lighting concept really are quite special,” he comments.

Farmhouse tables, dressers and trunks are displayed alongside designer furniture by Minotti and Flexform. And of course it wouldn’t be complete without a pair of antlers – in Tyrol, some people think a house doesn’t become a home until there are antlers on the wall. In the ElisabethHotel, they hang over the fireplace in the cosy lobby, and on the walls are several works of art by Tyrolean artists. Elisabeth Moigg is behind the attentive decoration.

So when you walk across the wool rug, become transfixed by the grain of the old wood on the walls, run your hand over the carvings in the antique dressers, swim along the relief-like Basalt wall in the indoor pool, take a seat on an ornate wooden stool in the lounge and then finally sink into the comfy bed with its striking headboard, you’ll be able to absorb the special harmony of the ElisabethHotel. Mei schian [how great is that]!

Mei schian!