Caroline Heiss on her great-great-grandmother Emma Hellenstainer, turn-of-the-century grand hotel architecture and why it can be absolute perfection when everything remains the same.
Historic: The Hotel Pragser Wildsee’s story began more than one and a half centuries ago. How did your family come to own this extraordinary piece of landscape and this house?
Caroline Heiss
Hostess at the Hotel Pragser Wildsee
My great-great-grandmother was Emma Hellenstainer, a tourism pioneer for South Tyrol. She purchased the lake around the middle of the 19th century. I should say, her husband Josef purchased the lake for her, because she was so homesick for her native East Tyrol. Emma really loved this spot. At the time, there was no hotel, only a small fishing hut and fishing rights were part of the lake ownership.
At the time, Emma was running the famous Gasthof Schwarzer Adler down in the valley in Villabassa, which is called ‘Emma’ today.
Exactly, people would come up to the lake from there. Up here, there was no food or drink for purchase. So, Emma opened up a small place selling beer and Marende, a traditional South Tyrolian meal of cold cuts and cheese. Emma was a true entrepreneur: She sold the ice from the lake to a brewery in Schwechat, near Vienna, and she sold the trout from the lake to Hotel Sacher in Vienna. Emma’s husband died early and she eventually decided that she would like to open a hotel on the lake. She built it together with her son Eduard.
Pas de deux of architecture and nature. Hotel Pragser Wildsee, Lago di Braies.
The house’s second defining feature, next to the beautiful location on the Lago di Braies, is its unique architecture.
Otto Schmid was the architect of the Hotel Pragser Wildsee. But behind the scenes, Theodor Christomannos from Merano was a great influence on its appearance. Christomannos had founded the ‘Verein für Alpenhotels in Tirol’, the society for alpine hotels in Tyrol. He wanted to build grand hotels that would offer comfort and luxury but not be overly opulent in their choice of materials. There were precise ideas about how everything should look: local materials, lime calcinated right here, furniture built with wood from the surrounding forests. Eduard Hellenstainer was very interested in this idea of grand hotels and suggested the spot on the lake to Christomannos. The Grandhotel Pragser Wildsee opened its doors in 1899.
How was the building process of such a grand hotel during that time?
They didn’t have scaffolding or excavation machinery. It’s almost inconceivable how a building like this could be constructed. The final wing was even built in winter! There are old pictures of the process. The grand windows onto the lake were imported from Belgium. No one here knew how to make windows like these in the 1800s.
What was the inspiration for Christomannos’ vision of the grand hotels?
He modelled his idea on Swiss mountain hotels, where they already had hotels near waterfalls or other naturally appealing places. The buildings were a symbol for man conquering nature. That was a reason for debate about the hotel even 120 years ago. But the choice of materials and the stone façade managed to harmonise the house and its surroundings.
»People will often say to me: ‘Everything is always the same here.’ That’s when I know that I have done something right.«
Caroline Heiss
Hostess at the Hotel Pragser Wildsee
Hotel Pragser Wildsee
Blue shines the myth-enshrouded Lake Braies between the South Tyrolian mountains, lending it a mystical air that touches the human soul. This signature blue colour was first discovered by the Danube Monarchy’s aristocrats of the Fin de siècle period.
»I have been interacting with this hotel for so long that I know what the hotel thinks, what it is like – almost as if it were a person.«
Caroline Heiss
Hostess at the Hotel Pragser Wildsee
Why did guests travel to the Grandhotel Pragser Wildsee?
It was their summer getaway. The cities were hot and getting a tan was not desirable. White skin was considered beautiful. Getting away for the summer was trendy all over Europe. Tourism also brought people to South Tyrol. The mountain air was also healing for those with pulmonary diseases. Kaiser Wilhelm came to Dobbiaco, and Switzerland had several mountain health resorts, such as Davos. Guests would stay for several months, a luxury that only few wealthy people could afford.
Emma Hellenstainer eventually had several hotels in South Tyrol…
That is true, but the family’s heart always lay here at the lake. That is why we eventually focused on this hotel. Neither my parents, nor I or any of the generations before made any huge changes, nothing was torn down and no large new buildings were added.
How does change happen in a hotel like this?
Everything takes forever. I can’t do anything quickly. With a historic house like this, you have to be truly sure of something before you implement any changes. I always talk to several people, the office for historic preservation, the architect, and many knowledgeable guests. The hotel can be improved of course. But I think the challenge is to feel it in your heart: What does the hotel want? What does this location want? And then you have to try to remain true to that. I have been interacting with this hotel for so long that I know what the hotel thinks, what it is like – almost as if it were a person. (smiles)
And what does it think, what is it like?
The hotel is as it is: It is not perfect. It is not new, and it does not have huge rooms. If it appeals to someone, then that is great. And if it doesn’t, there are enough other hotels for them. People will often say to me: ‘Everything is always the same here.’ That’s when I know that I have done something right. (smiles)
Caroline Heiss
Hostess at the Hotel Pragser Wildsee
Hotel Pragser Wildsee
San Vito 27
39030 Braies, South Tyrol
+39 0474 748 602
