“Lto beauty without history, what’s the point? It is a bit like saying that we are used to programming, to imagine and focus on the future: what will be after. We rarely look back, let’s look at that before that precedes us and from which we come. And before us there are the stones, and the stones remain ». Stephan Pramstrahler, 60, knows he has to make this premise to explain the world of his passions that he has collected in a place called Gallaria. We are in South Tyrol, a Fiè allo Sciliarinside the Gatschof, a farm divided in half.
Stone and romance in Fiè allo Sciliar
“In one part, I moved when I was convinced as a single I fell in love with Mathi, a woman who made me the father of five children. We needed a bigger house. We moved here, everyone has their own room now even if they want to sleep in a single bed all together ». The other half became the Gallaria in fact, an exclusive place, or four suites immersed in a valley that welcome customers in search of silence and privacy.
Yes, because Stephan is the owner of the Romantik Hotel Turma five-star hotel nestled in the center of Fiè and obtained within a complex of towers which at the end of the 12th century housed one of the many aristocratic families exiled by Frederick Barbarossa: it was Baron Pompeio Valerio Colonna who built a tower on one of the highest mountains (in German “Turm” ), to which he gave the name of “Vels” (Fels = rock), due to its rocky walls.
Photo by Joachim Schmeisser
The origins of the Romantik Hotel Turm date back to the fourteenth century. Over time, the building performed various functions: from court to prison it eventually became a hotel that has belonged to the Pramstrahler family for three generations (in 2000 Stephan expanded and renovated it: it is no coincidence that in the spa and fitness area of the lower floor of the hotel has designed a path of fifteen meters for climbing).
On the upper floors, a collection of over two thousand paintings (where it is easy to see a Picasso and a Dalma also a Klimt and a Guttuso) alternates with crucifixes of all shapes that recall the religious traditions of mountain farmers, and flanks the entrances to the forty-two rooms, including rooms and suites, the dining rooms (starred cuisine) and the stube. For the rest, cupboards overflowing with porcelain, family photos spread over entire walls and designer armchairs. But the rock remains the protagonist here too, even in the suites.
There Gallaria by Stephan Pramstrahler
Every week the owner invites the guests of the hotel to the Gallarianot far from the hotel, and everything finds an explanation: art, powerful nature and beauty touch each other here. We are inside an open space with walls covered with Greg Gorman’s photosthe famous portrait painters of Hollywood stars, who flank a stable where he looks out on display the collection of twelve Arabian horses (the one with whom Stephen won a ride of South Tyrol is the son of a father who was estimated nine million euros and a mother two million euros); in the center stand out Austrian design sculpturesa Harley Davidson motorcycle as a souvenir of his youth, and at the back there is a room to host friends, finally there are them: huge boulders with the typical gray rock of the placetransported there. Twenty-five thousand cubic meters of stone to be exact. «South Tyrol is not just wood, we use stone, we live surrounded by stone», he adds before sharing his latest passion-obsession. The crow.
La Gallaria by Stephan Pramstrahler photo by Joachim Schmeisser_O3A1878
Wine and sustainability
It is portrayed in black stone in the hotel and on the Pinot Corax (scientific name of the raven), that is one of the five wine labels (four whites and one red) produced by an award-winning winemaker in the 3.5 hectares of vineyards surrounding the other farm, the Grottnerhof, which stands in a secluded position, deliberately disconnected from the web and the worldto offer a location of absolute peace in nature.
Romantik Hotel Turm, Fiè allo Scilliar
The attention to the essence of existence on the planet is very much felt in this region: from 4 to 6 September, moreover, in Bolzano, the Sustainability Days will be held and one of the lectures of the conference that Leonora Grcheva will hold focuses on “Reconciling human needs and the limits of the planet with the donut economy “ (sustainabilitydays.com). Here, too, Stephan invites his guests to every week anyway taste wines created with grapes from a 13th century wine estate, subject to the protection of cultural heritage. Or to also experience the ritual of the grape harvest.
The ancient and thick walls house two design suites with a different style, while on the lower floor they find a place the cellar with the original barrels, the Selchküchethe room where cold cuts were smoked with the typical blackened ceiling, the authentic peasant stube and the still working oven, the corridor with cross vaults. Member of the Vinum Hotels Alto Adige / Südtirol, the Romantik Hotel Turm dedicates a place of honor to wine and not only because it houses a cellar dug into the rock with over 200 selected wines from South Tyrolean, Italian and worldwide vineyards: vineyards here represent a real challenge due to the slope of the land between 50 and 70%, which is why a lot of the work is done by hand. But it is precisely the slope that favors direct insolation.
The altitude, between 450 and 600 meters, and the soil of porphyritic origin make the terroir an ideal environment for vineyards. Finally, the area is characterized by an unusual microclimate, with temperature variations between day and night. During the day the Grottnerhof vineyards enjoy the warm and Mediterranean climate of the Bolzano basin, while at night the cool north wind that descends from the Isarco Valley brings refreshment and perfect ventilation.
Trekking and walks in Fiè allo Sciliar
Needless to say, around here for three hundred days a year there is always the sun. And that, if not the crow, you can spot many other birds with a strong character (which ended up on the labels of other wines): a walk on the Alpe di Siusi (cable car to be taken in Siusi, half an hour from the romantic village of Fiè) or around the Pond of Fiè, one of the cleanest in Italy therefore bathing and circumnavigable.
A walk that continues on other paths (such as that of the Masi di Aica) which, as if it were a net, envelop this magical corner covered with vineyards and meadows, near Bolzano which, however, remains far away with the mind: we are between the Sciliar plateau and the Isarco Valley, and that massif that has become one of the South Tyrolean symbols (i.e. the Sciliarthe largest in Europe) is flanked by two peaks, Punta Santner and Punta Euringer. It is extraordinary to admire them from any point, to see them motionless and sly.
They look at us, they stay, they are the background to the joys and efforts of hikers and cyclists, and like everything important that protects us, they stay there, without imposing themselves: the stone that houses fir trees, butterflies, snow and sky, is an alphabet of stories, genealogies and wonders. It could be a good opportunity to rediscover it, embrace it, bring (as long as it is legal) a small piece, a pebble, perhaps at home to find a place for it: perhaps next to our PC.
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