A natural philosophy
A sustainable hotel respects the wisdom of nature,
as well as the desires of the people who come here. Some are searching for a long-lost time where they can turn their attention to things that are really important to them – and last but not least to their own, perhaps hidden desires. Some, in turn, long for a simplicity that is now just a fond memory to them. For peace and tranquillity, not having to do anything, being able to do anything, the delicious feeling of freedom and contemplating life.
And then they take the cable car up to the Monte San Vigilio/Vigiljoch and thus take the decision to let go of the hustle and bustle of everyday life, to draw new strength and energy from the silence and immediacy of nature. As a sustainable hotel, the vigilius mountain resort contributes to this in a variety of ways at once: as a “green hotel” and an A-class ClimateHouse, which works economically and using only renewable resources. As a place that models simplicity, which is reflected in the design and also in the people who work here – roughly 40 employees from a range of different nations gather here every day to simply be your personal host.
From the desire for simplicity
There was a place
that fascinated me back when I was a child: it was not only being immersed in nature that put me under the spell of the place, but also the views into the distance you had from above.
It was only much later, though, that an idea and a dream grew within me to build a very different sort of hotel up here one day, a home away from home where guests could share in the extraordinary feeling that emanates from this place. Matteo Thun drafted a design and then planned this modern wood-built structure down to the very last detail. It is a far cry from the ordinary, and exactly as I had imagined it. After construction on the vigilius mountain resort was complete, the challenge was to imbue the hotel with a sensuous feel. It wasn’t easy and many of the locals said “he’s crazy, it’ll never work!”. But I was always convinced that there are other people who will love and appreciate this place just as much as I do – and I was right.
Attentive. Authentic. Affable. The key to the success of this sustainable hotel is solely and exclusively our staff and their authentic amiability. The mountain is honest and simple, we want to emulate it. Those might be very simple values but they no longer go without saying. Love, time and devotion are also what I wish for the future of this hotel. It is precisely these precious moments of the here and now, of memories and simply being which are so intense in this place, which bind us people to the vigilius mountain resort like an invisible thread. Anyone who comes here is looking to find themselves and to find us. In simplicity. We want to give you that.
Ulrich Ladurner, owner
A children’s hideaway, far removed from modern life
On your return, as if from never-never land,
you might be assailed by doubts that you dreamt it all up. And that’s understandable, since there is no road leading up to the place. Its only link to the rest of the world is a cable car. The building itself seems the stuff of dreams – a gigantic tree trunk lying on the ground, surrounded by nothing. Just forests and flowers and the rarefied air and absolute silence you get at 1 500 meters above sea level. A secret lair camouflaged by the landscape, a bit like a children’s tree-house. The sustainable vigilius mountain resort hotel, a wood and glass construction resting upon a crest of the mountainside in South Tyrol, above the town of Lana near Merano/Meran, is an adult, indeed a super-sophisticated, version of a children’s hideaway. A children’s hideaway for adults, if you like.
It is a veritable retreat, far removed from reality, consisting of 41 spacious, wood-panelled rooms with heated stone walls and panoramic windows, a restaurant built using 300-year old wood painstakingly recovered from an ancient farm building, and a swimming pool with an enormous window looking out southwards, towards the sun. Fire and water are everywhere: fireplaces indoors and out, alongside fountains and hydrotherapy baths.
During the day, guests can enjoy regenerative spa and therapeutic water treatments or choose from various outdoor sports activities. Everything here revolves around nature and everything is landscape: from the outside, you hardly notice the hotel, and when you’re inside, you see so much you could be outside. Put in another way, it’s not like looking at a postcard, it’s as if you are in the postcard. The vigilius mountain resort is the sort of place that is worth experiencing and understanding.
You return home regenerated, as if after a long and very sweet dream.
Matteo Thun, Architect