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Latched to a sunny plateau high above Merano, the boutique Miramonti Hotel & Spa peers out across Alto Adige like an eagle from its perch. Forests unfurl beneath, the Dolomites stretch on the horizon, and life here feels both grounded and sky-bound.
This is South Tyrol from the top down, a hotel that has seen several lives since its first incarnation in 1932, but none quite like the one shaped by Klaus Alber and Carmen Kruselburger. They took what was once an ordinary mountain hotel and transformed it into a bolthole for connoisseurs of the good life. The greatest asset was always the location, its bird’s-eye vistas sweeping across Alto Adige. Taking that vantage point as their cue, the duo reshaped the unremarkable into something rooted in the landscape, a retreat that is today anything but ordinary.
They were just 24 when they first took the reins. “We became directors, young, curious, full of ideas,” Klaus recalls. What began as a stop for a winter sports day turned into destiny. They ran the hotel for seven years before daring to imagine it as their own. The dream felt far off, but it never let go. The financial crisis of all things opened the door, and suddenly, the place was theirs. “It took a long time to realise what we had achieved,” he says, “but we knew one thing: we could only do this together.”
Togetherness is what defines MIRAMONTI. Carmen reads the soul of the place, Klaus reads the mountain. “Nature is our best architect,” he says. “Porphyry, larch, light, textures – we listen. Forest, stones, seasons. Every decision is made with respect for the place. The mountain is our most important advisor.”
The original chocolate-box Alpine shell has been spliced with bold modern interventions, stitched with mid-century classics and softened with nostalgic Alpine touches. The Loft Rooms frame the peaks with oversized glazing and Arne Jacobsen chairs. The Owner’s House breathes with silver fir, sheep’s wool and handwoven linen. The spa, designed by Merano architects Heike Pohl and Andreas Zanier, feels less like a build and more like a mountain growing into wellness: saltwater infinity pools carved into rock, a forest sauna balanced on stilts, quartz slabs recalling caves and glaciers.
And yet, for Klaus and Carmen, the real luxury is not design but feeling. “MIRAMONTI should be a place of strength – not loud, not explained, but felt,” Klaus says. You catch it in the scent of wood, in a smile that is never forced, in the kind of silence where words are unnecessary.
Food, of course, plays its part in this rhythm. Massimo Geromel, their Venetian-born chef, spins three distinct culinary moods: fine dining in the Panorama Restaurant, laid-back soul food in the Klassik, and Alpine nostalgia in the Stube dating back to 1887. “We wanted to create a place that reinterprets Alpine hospitality,” Carmen says. “In tune with the seasons, with honest materials, and with a deep sense of humanity.”
Their collaborators mirror that ethos: Harry Thaler, architect Tara, the Graf joinery, textiles by Jaga Rich and Rubelli. “We work with people, not brands,” Klaus says. “Architecture is not a statement here, it is a feeling.”
As for what’s next, the duo dream of a spa house embedded in porphyry rock, an Alpine hut on Meran 2000, and a staff residence that feels as special as the guest rooms. Beyond Hafling, there are whispers. “If there were a sister project, it would be in the mountains, perhaps even higher up. Norway would be exciting. Or a new place here in South Tyrol. If lower, then Tuscany,” Klaus muses. Whatever the geography, the ethos would remain: Scandinavian restraint, imperfection as an attitude, service that is always human.
MIRAMONTI is not finished, nor does it want to be. “We are people who are easily inspired,” Klaus smiles. “So MIRAMONTI is always in motion. The values stay, but the house keeps evolving.”
A retreat born of serendipity, refined by courage, and carried forward by a partnership of equals. From its plateau above Merano, MIRAMONTI continues to write its own story, one that is still very much in the opening chapters.
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Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.