PoSt Apartments

Intro

On the site of a former post office from 1573 and village heart of quintessential Alpine gem Maria Alm in the district of Pinzgau, Austria, PoSt Apartments are a stylish departure from the expected alpine remit presenting a smooth co-joining of historical legacy with contemporary comforts. 

The village-facing new facade keeps the historical narrative pretty much remained unchanged and defines alpinist charm; recreated so indeed time can stand still. Inside, however, these boutique holiday apartments have been configured with a modern overlay decked in an abundance of honeyed oak-timbers and hand-woven materials from the surrounding Salzburgerland, including all of the building workers, who were local trade people and family members. The project was a family restoration as the building has been in its hands since the 1960s.  

As much of the former building was salvaged as possible, particularly those gorgeous architectural features. The lovingly restored rafters overhead, the worn travertine stairs and wide entrance doors hint at the house's previous incarnations – throughout the centuries, PoSt has lived not only as a post office but as a grocery store, boarding house and quarters for Franciscan nuns, right next to the church.

Today, the PoSt has nine new elegant holiday apartments that create a sense of place with contemporary flair. Incredibly comfortable, the interior design adopts an Alpine visual language using tone-on-tone colour palettes, reams of indigenous oak sawn flooring, parquet walls and smooth stone underfoot in chic bathrooms. The clever architecture permits panoramic windows and balconies that drink up the mountain surroundings. Even better, the warm wellness area divulges a panoramic pool to luxuriate in with sidelong sauna and massage spots – perfect for post-ski chillaxing. 

Welcome from the Schwaiger-Eder family is warmly traditional. Their eye for heritage can be seen from the use of beautiful loden cloth and natural, local fabrics – even the neat window boxes that line the façade are deeply traditional, yet positioned against the newly restored building, the look is fresh, clean and ready for the next arrival of style-savvy travellers.

Clasped by the picture-perfect idyll of Maria Alm and its unmistakable church spire, skirted by the soaring Hochkönig mountain range, PoSt is a cool vacation hub wrapped in history. Enjoy a breath of history, local charm and a deep sense of calming mountain style.

Apartments

Foodie

Location

Owners

The Post Office has been family-owned since the 1960s, at the time, the grandmother Maria Schwaiger bought the "Ilgen" together with her siblings and ran the post office as a restaurant together with her sister Kathi on the village square. Fast forward to today.

"My father bought the shares from my grandmother's siblings, he and my mother decided to reconstruct the post office. My parents poured their heart into the project and I am extremely proud of them and the family. Fortunately, my father has a good grasp of restoration and construction and my mother has the interior eye.

My uncle and cousin also played a very big role in this - because they run a carpentry shop together and have looked after the post office like their own project (Lanzinger joinery). It was also very important to us to get all the craftsmen and companies who worked at the PoSt from the local area. So the company that drove the furthest to PoSt was about 40 km away.         

We run the PoSt as a family business, my parents Barbara and Matthias, me (Catharina) and my two sisters Theresa and Marie-Sophie. The two "little ones" (17 and 15) also help diligently and make the PoSt a real family business".