Gerti and Alex Wolf of Pünthof in Lagundo talk about the joy of finding one’s match, gratitude over accolades and how colours, fabrics and a sense of art lend lightness to a place like theirs.
Historic: The Ansitz Pünthof won the title of Historic Hotel of the Year 2024 for ‘not only displaying a non-heavy approach to a certain history but also presenting original solutions to new challenges.’
Gerti and Alex Wolf
Host at the Ansitz Pünthof
Gerti: I love this sentence! It’s the epitome of what we want to achieve here. And we thought we might not be good enough to enter this competition. It was only once we started to work with people who were a good match for us that we lost the austerity and gained a sort of lightness. An old building is not a sanctuary or a church. I wanted to work with fabrics, colours.
Is that how you started to work with architect Christina Biasi von Berg?
Gerti: It is. Christina suggested a fabric arrangement I agreed with immediately¾that’s how good she is¾and a certain crispness entered the rooms! Others would probably furnish this place like a castle. But nobody likes that kind of heaviness anymore. That’s why I like this sentence so much. After all, a ‘non-heavy’ approach is not the same as taking something lightly.
A sense of art and hospitality. The Ansitz Pünthof, Lagundo.
Your family’s history with the farm dates quite a while back.
Alex: There is a deed of purchase dating back to 1620. In the 1990s, an expert was looking for historical documents on old South Tyrolean farms in archives in Munich and Innsbruck. He knew that in many municipalities official papers had been burned or secretly shipped abroad in backpacks during fascist times. He found our deed of purchase from 1620 during his research and went on to work on our family tree here.
In old records, the ’Pünthof’ is referred to as ‘Bindhof.’
Gerti: In the old days, people used to spell names the way they pronounced them. They were hardly literate.
Alex: In 1995, when we won the title of ‘hereditary farm’, some extra research was undertaken. The farm’s real name ‘Pünthof’ is originally Romanesque: ‘pünt’ comes from ‘ponte’, which means ‘bridge.’
Gerti: Back there on the bank of the river Adige sits the bridgehead of the Via Claudia Augusta, an ancient Roman road that leads from the south to the Passo di Resia in the north.
There’s a tower on the Pünthof, which is visible from the garden.
Alex: Originally, this was a watch tower. It didn’t have a roof, and even the stairs were on the outside. When you were up there, you could see people walking along the road miles away. It’s likely that the tower was only made inhabitable and given a roof when our family bought the estate in 1620.
Another thing that catches the eye here is your relationship to art.
Alex: We’ve always had artists here. My sister used to do art herself; she spent a lot of time with Rudolf Stingl. As a student, he visited here often and painted the crests on the outer wall.
»A ‘non-heavy’ approach is not the same as taking something lightly.«
Gerti Wolf
Hostess at the Ansitz Pünthof
Ansitz Pünthof
Amidst a scenic paradise, on an ancient Roman footbridge crossing the river Adige near Lagundo, there towers what is now called the Pünthof.
»Our guests have our attention. They are paying for us to talk to them, tell them stories.«
Gerti Wolf
Hostess at the Ansitz Pünthof
And how did you meet the artist Manfred Mayr?
Alex: He has been a friend of the family for quite some time. For example, he sketched the furniture in this room here. The details of the ‘Stübele’, the little parlour, are also his doing, as is the fact that the old parlour looks like this again now.
When was it originally built?
Alex: Around 1600. In the 1970s, somebody put in a parquet floor and covered the seats with fabrics. When Manfred proposed to remove all of it, the old benches and floors appeared beneath it. The colours are original, just a little touched up.
Watching you interact with your house guests as you did just now in the old parlour, it is obvious how much you focus on your guests as individual human beings. You take your time for a personal conversation.
Gerti: Before we received this title, we didn’t realise what we are doing differently. Our guests have our attention. They are paying for us to talk to them, tell them stories. And now, having won, it does makes us a little proud, brings us joy.
Alex: I guess we must have done some things right. (Laughs.)
Honouring historic hotels and giving shout-outs to the hosts is a way of saying thank you.
Alex: It’s important to care of these historic hotels. If no one lives in a building, it crumbles. Everybody is talking about sustainability these days. A building that doesn’t crumble for a couple of centuries is also sustainable. The Pünthof might well go on for another hundred years if well taken care of.
So, it’s better to do things carefully than again and again?
Alex: Our place has changed our attitude. When you are surrounded by things that are a couple of hundred years old, you build a completely different connection to them. We choose something because we like it. And we don’t want to throw it out when it’s broken. It might need repairs. But it stays.
Gerti: We have learned to make a difference between what is worth preserving and what is not. Some things have timeless beauty. And that doesn’t change for a long time.
Gerti and Alex Wolf
Hostess at the Ansitz Pünthof
