Anchor point for sophisti­cated souls — The See­hotel Ambach in Caldaro

Lizards and dra­gon­flies

1970, on the north-eastern shore of Lake Caldaro. A man is standing in a wide orchard meadow that stretches down to the water, con­tem­plating the jungle of tall reeds and the smooth surface of the lake spar­kling in the sun­light. The water lies very still and reflects the gently undu­lating vineyard land­scape and the massif of the Mendel moun­tains that domi­nates the scenery. Every now and then the water surface ripples, the lake giggles and gurgles, then it takes up again its quiet dia­logue with the stone giant on the horizon. In the reed jungle birds chirp, dra­gon­flies fly back and forth between the water plants like small pro­peller planes, lurches and lizards lie in the warming sun. 

Even the man stands in silent dia­logue — with himself, his ideas, the atmo­sphere, the land­scape and the genius loci of this little piece of South Tyrol, which in the fol­lowing three years will become the birth­place of a cou­ra­geous and utterly unique project. 

Pure ima­gi­nation and fic­ti­tious, but this is how it might have hap­pened, the first visit of South Tyrolean architect Othmar Barth to the site where he ima­gined and sketched the See­hotel Ambach and placed it on the lakeside, carefully yet powerfully. The building has been standing here for more than 50 years now — quiet, white, essential. Striking and puristic, expressive and modest at the same time, it devoutly con­tem­plates the land­scape that sur­rounds it. 

Anna and the architect

It is thanks to Othmar Barth (1927–2010) that modern archi­tecture has found its way into South Tyrol. And like all pio­neers, he first stood in the headwind — and his client with him, not least because inno­vative building in the Alpine region is always a tigh­trope walk, since archi­tecture that sits in the free land­scape must stand up for itself.

Barth was a friend and the “court architect” of the Ambach-Maran hotelier family, for whom he had already planned the bath and restaurant estab­lishment Gretl am See (and later also the family’s private house in Caldaro). In 1970 Anna Ambach (1926–2014) ent­rusted him with the archi­tec­tural inter­pre­tation of her vision of aes­thetics, hos­pi­tality and holiday idyll on the north-eastern shore of the lake. She relied who­le­he­ar­tedly on the mas­terful bravura of her architect friend, who con­sidered the See­hotel to be one of his best buil­dings and who himself was often to be found there as a holiday guest. Anna Ambach moved into the hotel and made it her per­manent resi­dence. She enjoyed the spa­ciousness and spec­ta­cular lake view of today’s Suite 73 up to old age. 

Opened in 1973, the hotel is the “child” and life’s work of a cou­ra­geous woman, who had a precise idea of indi­vidual guest culture and modern holiday needs already at that time. She was thus far ahead of her time, and what would later become an important source of inspi­ration for the deve­lo­pment of modern archi­tecture in South Tyrol, initially caused sarcasm and indi­gnation: “A stranded ship” on the lakeside, an offence, an outra­geous audacity made of con­crete. Anna Ambach stood smiling in the headwind, served delighted guests a good glass of wine on the pan­orama terrace and knew that good things take time. Then archi­tecture lovers dis­co­vered the place and the hotel made history.

For 40 years the house, where South Tyrolean high society and fre­quent guests from the north, delighted by the warm hos­pi­tality of their hostess, shared the won­derful view of the lake, remained a well-hidden secret. For 40 years Anna Ambach changed (almost) nothing in the house — mali­cious voices say she had a certain ten­dency to be a little thrifty: What a luck! No mania for trans­for­mation in the name of the latest archi­tec­tural trends, no tourist standard pro­gramme, no kitschy “leder­hosen archi­tecture” that mis­in­ter­prets local tra­dition and archi­tecture to the point of absurdity. The Ambach is dif­ferent: it is simple, white, powerful. Modest, quiet, con­tem­plative. Moods, per­ception of space, light, material, surface, shape and colour become cho­reo­graphers who mas­terfully yet subtly stage Cal­daro’s natural spec­tacle. May­flies cannot create some­thing like this, archi­tec­tural icons can.

Wander years with surf­board

1984, summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Par­ti­ci­pating: Klaus Maran, three-time world champion in wind­surfing, a very young disci­pline (in May 1967 the first wind­surfer glided through the bay of Santa Monica in the USA, in Europe wind­surfing is booming not until the 70s). A passion — so the tenor of the “serious sports world” at that time — which only dreamers, freaks and visio­naries fall for. Or people who grew up on the warmest bathing lake of the Alps — like Klaus Maran. He meets his future wife Manuela Mascia, several times world champion in ladies wind­surfing, in the Italian national team. Surfing gives the son of the long-estab­lished Kal­terer family of hote­liers the oppor­tunity to turn his back on the South Tyrolean alpine idyll for a few years and to glide through waves, wind and the glamorous surf spots of the world oceans. Wander years with surf­board.

But then he returns from his Grand Tour overseas. Klaus Maran feels drawn back to his homeland, to the lake, which had taught him to “fly” at a very young age. Back to the roots — back to the family tra­dition, to hos­pi­tality, to freshwater. First, Klaus and Manuela take over the restaurant and café Gretl am See, planned by Othmar Barth on the western shore of Lake Kaltern, and establish a lido with a sailing and wind­surfing school there. A little later, they re-opened the his­toric wine bar See­hof­keller over­looking the lake: Here you can still savour the tra­di­tional cuisine sur­rounded by pic­turesque vineyards and a beau­tiful alpine scenery. 

In 2014 Klaus Maran inherits the life’s work of his aunt Anna: the 40-year-old See­hotel Ambach, the white ship on the lakeside. And Klaus Maran takes up the inhe­ri­tance, well aware that such a house is destined to become the life’s work of several gene­ra­tions, since:  The Ambach is not just a hotel. It is a gran­diose work of art, a little miracle that needs to be pre­served, cared for and guided into the future. 

Pre­serving and renewing

After 40 years of “Sleeping Beauty slumber”, some modi­fi­ca­tions in the hotel had become ine­vi­table. The top priority and at the same time the greatest challenge was to pre­serve the soul of the hotel and Othmar Barth’s archi­tec­tural legacy and to anchor the See­hotel carefully and without sty­listic breaks in the 21st century. 

The Marans’ vision of the “new” See­hotel pro­vided plenty of scope for authentic holiday expe­ri­ences — inside and outside — for a small number of guests. Lake view, peace, rela­xation, culinary delights, wellness and movement in and around the element of water, in the midst of soothing nature and an ambience that nou­rishes the soul.

For the moder­ni­sation, the hote­liers brought Caldaro architect Walter Angonese on board, whose pro­jects are cha­rac­te­rised by great care in dealing with the essence, history and ori­ginal sub­s­tance of a building. First of all, the hotel’s building instal­la­tions were com­pletely reno­vated, the bath­rooms in all rooms and suites were rede­signed, Anna’s “apartment” was trans­formed into the light-flooded Suite 73, and carpets, tex­tiles and upholstery were renewed in the ori­ginal colour scheme — oxide red, olive green, mustard yellow. Step by step, ori­ginal pieces have been carefully res­tored and com­ple­mented by con­tem­porary designer fur­niture and access­ories. 

Tim­eless Gran­dezza

Othmar Barth used the formal lan­guage of the early 1970s for his hotel project, but his creative freedom was the main driving force. He let colours and mate­rials, design classics and the spirit of the seventies enter into dia­logue with the clear con­tours of the tim­eless, purist building. In the wide, open staircase, evo­cative plays of light and shade on the white-plas­tered con­crete become the prot­ago­nists of a spatial expe­rience that is both sacred and mundane at the same time.

One is almost waiting for Roger Moore aka James Bond in his dinner jacket to step down the wide staircase and enjoy a shaken (not stirred…) Martini on the hotel terrace.

The Marans and Walter Angonese have achieved a further little miracle with the moder­ni­sation of the Ambach: they have suc­ceeded in pre­serving the ori­ginal sub­s­tance and spirit of the 1970s, but the house is not a distillate of the 70s. This is a big and important dif­fe­rence. Today’s Ambach takes its hat off to the style icons of the Seventies, it reminds with a wink and also somewhat nost­algic of the time when tele­phones still had string and dial and music rocked out of round vinyl, but it is and remains tim­eless. This creates the space in which indi­vidual and authentic worlds of expe­rience can unfold in a very relaxed way. Live and let live: in terms of style, content, but also very per­so­nally. That makes up the true Gran­dezza of the See­hotel. 

Frog concert

Around the hotel building a vast, Medi­ter­ranean park with old, shadow-pro­viding trees and sunny meadows extends, framed by a lush reed vege­tation, vineyards, a herb garden and old orchard.

Two wooden walkways lead the guests through the high reeds all the way to the water, and those who look and listen carefully will be amazed at the rich flora and fauna that find their pro­tected habitat here. The reed areas, the lakeside forest and the sub-Medi­ter­ranean bush along the shore have been declared a nature reserve. The fact that cano­eists carefully pull the paddle out of the water near the shore to avoid getting in the way of the water lilies and dra­gon­flies, is a won­derful proof of how true beauty teaches mindfulness. The animal inha­bi­tants of the lake pay tribute with an enchanting concert in the reed beds.

Bath­house

In 2018 Walter Angonese designed, in col­la­bo­ration with flaim prünster archi­tekten the new bath­house with a heated outdoor swimming pool in the rear part of the extensive garden, where old willows line the shore zone. As the hotel’s “shadow building” it almost dis­ap­pears into the garden land­scape, yet creates clear con­necting axes to Barth’s white building.

One-storey and almost trans­parent, the bath­house “floats” on the extensive meadow like a boat in the water. As a pile con­s­truction made of smoothly brushed and oiled wood, it refers to the ship con­s­truction. The floor-to-ceiling glass facades and the covered terrace allow an undis­turbed view from the lake to the hotel building and over the wine land­scape into the distance. 

Inside, the bath house is a quiet temple of well­being: Finnish sauna, steam bath and “rain room” are grouped around the central whirlpool. A place for soul, senses and divine rela­xation.

Both archi­tects — Barth and Angonese — demons­trated a high degree of sen­si­tivity in their inter­action with nature: the hotel building as well as the bath­house are clear archi­tec­tural state­ments, but they take a back seat and take their role as a “Bel­vedere”, which leads the view from the inside out­wards, very seriously. The Ambach stages the lake land­scape like a multi-faceted open-air stage — at any time of day or year. Rooms, stairs, ter­races, the glass-fronted spa, the jetties and the garden become box seats of a spec­tacle that pro­vides an answer to every longing.

Design temple

The 28 rooms and 4 suites of the Ambach are both intro­verted and extro­verted at the same time. They are light-flooded retreats and intimate loggias with high glass fronts opening onto the lake. The interior in the mood of the 70s picks up the curved con­tours of the house façade and the colours and forms of the sur­rounding nature and its ele­ments. 

When rede­signing the hotel, it was important to the hote­liers that all rooms would be fle­xibly adapted to dif­ferent living pur­poses and usage con­stel­la­tions: young families, writing hermits, late risers and sun bathers. Everyone can find their own piece of hap­piness here. The new bath­rooms are bright, puristic and feature a lot of ceramic. Special accents are thoughtful remi­nis­cences to the master and spi­ritual father of Ambach. 

Othmar Barth’s design style still defines the choice of fabrics, lamps and fur­niture today — down to the smallest detail. Many of the pieces were designed by the architect (and car­pen­ter’s son) himself at that time and were custom-made by local craftsmen. Now classics of Italian modernism and con­tem­porary pieces form a har­mo­nious ensemble. 

A holiday in the Ambach is inter­na­tional design history made tan­gible: you sit on Selene, relax in the spa­ghetti chair, slumber in Alfredo Häberli’s daybed and meditate in Tord Boontje’s garden chair Shadowy. Names like Vico Magistretti, Achille Cas­tig­lioni, Emma Gis­mondi Schwein­berger or Patricia Urquiola make the hearts of con­nois­seurs beat faster.

The Marans’ need for aes­thetics is reflected in the house at every turn: lighting, colour scheme, choice of mate­rials and the gentle, attentive manner of accom­mo­dating guests creates a tho­roughly har­mo­nious atmo­sphere. In the Ambach style and mood are made tan­gible through archi­tecture and design and trans­lated into an emphatic, sophisti­cated hos­pi­tality culture capable of pulling out all the stops but without ever becoming too much: Ever­y­thing here is well balanced, thoughtful, and utterly laid-back.

Sushi by the lake

Those who occa­sio­nally feel the need for a bustling, cos­mo­po­litan atmo­sphere will find the right setting in the nearby Gretl am See. Here the third gene­ration of the Maran family blends cos­mo­po­litan spirit and chill-out music with spar­kling cock­tails and a fine, creative cuisine. A suc­cessful and very popular crossover of seaside resort feeling, club ambience and the won­derful lightness of being. Dress code: Free spirit.

A friend of the family, Kurt Hoe­retzeder, has per­fectly cap­tured the essence of the Gretl am See:

“There is a place in South Tyrol, where many things are pos­sible, that are not com­pa­tible in other places. At three o’clock in the afternoon on the lakeside terrace, an ele­gantly dressed South Tyrolean lady sips the fashionable drink of the season, vividly chatting with her girl­friends, while next to her a guest from the far north peels himself out of his full leather bike outfit at over 30° Celsius. And at the table further back, three illus­trious gen­tlemen from Bolzano discuss important matters. This uncon­ven­tional con­stel­lation of people is pro­bably nowhere to be found in the gas­tro­nomic ambience. Here, they live tog­ether bene­vo­lently.”

How true. There are not many places in the South Tyrolean mountain idyll that juggle con­trasts so mas­terfully that they merge into a natural unity: urban souls and folk tra­dition, pedal boat riders and wind­surfers, Alpine scenery and melting pot flair, afternoon coffee & sushi by the lake.

One cannot help but notice a gene­ti­cally inhe­rited gift in the members of the Ambach-Maran family — whether in the first, second or third gene­ration: They are talented at giving dreams and visions — however crazy, utopian or unor­thodox they may seem at first — a con­crete form and pas­sionate right to exist. Chapeau!

Klaus and Manuela Maran have paid tribute to Anna’s heritage. The Ambach grooves, rocks and swings. It medi­tates, ponders and smiles sil­ently. According to the con­stel­lation of guests, wishes and moods. Then as now the house is an incom­pa­rable place: it’s a spec­ta­cular spatial sculpture, a design temple, a paradise for soul, spirit and senses, an anchor point for sophisti­cated souls, an oasis of good living. The list would go on forever, but words will never really do justice to this house. You have to expe­rience it.