Forestis Dolomites

At 1,800 metres on the southern face of the Plose mountain above Bressanone in South Tyrol, Forestis Dolomites occupies the former Lahner am Wald sanatorium — a nineteenth-century wellness institution whose patients were sent to breathe the high mountain air — comprehensively transformed into a 63-room contemporary hotel whose architecture, by Bergmeister Wolf Architekten, uses the natural materials of the local forest (stone, larch, spruce) in a rigorous contemporary design that produces interiors of exceptional sensory quality. The rooms’ extensive use of untreated alpine timber, the forest views from floor-to-ceiling windows, and the spa’s outdoor bathing pool above the tree line combine to create an immersive engagement with the Dolomite mountain environment that the building’s specific altitude and orientation makes uniquely possible.

The Forestis kitchen draws on the agricultural traditions of the South Tyrolean alpine zone — the aged Lagrein and Gewürztraminer wines of the Isarco valley below, the Speck ham and aged alpine cheese of the Bressanone producer community, the mountain herbs and wild berries harvested from the terrain above the hotel — in a menu of considerable precision that reflects the chef’s long relationship with this particular landscape. The spa’s outdoor pool at 1,800 metres, the forest bathing programme with guided sensory walks through the surrounding larch and spruce, and the winter ski connection to the Plose resort give the property a distinctive seasonal character across the year. The baroque cityscape of Bressanone is accessible by cable car descending to the valley below.

Forestis’s conservation relationship with the mountain forest that constitutes both its immediate environment and its primary therapeutic resource is expressed through the building’s commitment to minimal disturbance of the site’s pre-existing vegetation, the use of managed local timber in construction, and the hotel’s participation in the Plose mountain’s controlled visitor management programme.