Credit: Forestis

We want to offer our guests personally chosen experiences that move them and continue to resonate with them when they are back home again
– Stefan Hinteregger

Armin Sader, of hotel architecture firm Asaggio, is reimagining a historic hotel in the mountains of South Tyrol, Italy, with an emphasis on its solitary location in nature and a focus on wellness.

The building in which Forestis is situated is located in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Dolomites and was conceived by its original owners to be a sanatorium for lung disease sufferers prior to the First World War, making use of the area's pure spring water, fresh mountain air, and a climate with an above-average number of sunny days.

It was designed by Otto Wagner, but his early death, along with the turmoil of World War I, meant the project was carried out on a more modest scale as a historic timber house. It served as a refuge for war veterans until 1922.

In 2007, South Tyrolean hotelier Alois Hinteregger discovered the building, which had fallen into disuse, among wild, unkempt hedges on one of his many walks in the area. He breathed new life into it and opened it as a hotel in 2009.

A decade later, Hinteregger, along with his son, Stefan, and Stefan’s partner, Teresa, are writing a new chapter for the hotel, which will be reimagined as a refuge that draws on the natural elements inherent in the location.

The hotel has joined Healing Hotels of the World as part of its new focus on healing, and it will offer several multi-day programmes and retreats.

it will have 62 suites created almost exclusively from local materials, all of which have views of the mountain scenery.

Nature has played a key role in the design and offer of the Forestis Spa, which includes a Wyda room for Celtic yoga, a gym, indoor and outdoor infinity pool, three saunas, salt steam bath, textile sauna, Kneipp bath, silence rooms and nature meditation spaces.

"We have conceived Forestis as a refuge for relaxation and a place for strength, for people all over the world, in the place we have been fortunate enough to call home," said Teresa Unterthiner and Stefan Hinteregger, owners of Forestis. "We want to share the beauty of the mountains, climate, water, air, sun to enrich our guest’s wellbeing and this space of power that can be felt, experienced and seen.”

Stefan Hinteregger continued: “We want to offer our guests personally chosen experiences that move them and continue to resonate with them when they are back home again."