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Romantik Hotel & Restaurant Stafler
Freienfeld, Italy · Independent · Accessible Luxury
On the old Brenner road at Mauls, this was a post house in the late 1200s, and the Stafler family has been putting up travellers here for more than 270 years. Goethe stopped off on his way south. The medieval stube now holds only five tables, and Peter Girtler cooks a Michelin-starred tasting menu in it, most of the produce coming from the family's own farm behind the hotel. Thirty-six rooms, a park with a lily pond, and the Brenner autobahn a few minutes away.
- 36 rooms
- Neighborhood: Mauls
About Romantik Hotel & Restaurant Stafler
- Girtler held two Michelin stars at the Gourmetstube Einhorn from 2022 through 2024 and carries one today; Gault&Millau made him South Tyrol's Chef of the Year for 2026 at 18.5 out of 20.
- His signature course is goose liver in four forms at once: pan-fried with sea buckthorn, as creme brulee, as a gateau with green apple, and as a snowball with dried apricot.
- Stafler's Gut is still a working estate, with dairy cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, an Arabian horse stud, a heritage farmhouse and a large herb garden.
History
The house at Mauls began as a post station on the road over the Brenner, and the Michelin guide dates that first working life to the late thirteenth century. Travellers heading north or south changed horses and slept here for centuries; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was one of those who broke a journey south at Mauls. The Stafler family has been innkeeping on the site for more than 270 years and farming the land for about two hundred, and the building grew room by room across that time, which is why no two of the thirty-six rooms are shaped alike and they range from 25 to 68 square metres.
The kitchen made the house famous a second time. Peter Girtler won his first Michelin star in 2009, opened the tiny Gourmetstube Einhorn in 2011, and held two stars from 2022 through 2024; the room carries one star today along with four Gault&Millau toques and an 18.5 out of 20 score. Gault&Millau named him South Tyrol's Chef of the Year for 2026. The Einhornstube seats only five tables under medieval panelling, with a bay window and a tiled stove, and the wine list is looked after by sommeliere Lisa Kinkelin, who was named sommeliere of the year by Der Grosse Guide in 2020. Alongside it the Gasthofstube serves the rustic South Tyrolean side of the same larder. Much of what both kitchens use walks in from Stafler's Gut: the Nagelehof heritage farm with its Arabian stud, dairy cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and herb garden.
The setting
Mauls sits in the Eisack valley between Sterzing and Brixen, on the old Brenner road just south of the pass, with the Brenner motorway a few minutes from the gate. The hotel stands in its own park with a water-lily pond on the wider estate grounds, and the Munich to Venice long-distance cycling route passes within a kilometre. Freienfeld station is about four kilometres away, Franzensfeste eleven, and the western Dolomites are a short drive east.
Experiences
- Hiking and cycling in South Tyrol — Recreational activities in summer such as hiking and cycling, information provided on the website.
- Winter sports and Christmas markets in South Tyrol — Winter sports and Christmas markets in winter, information provided on the website.
Amenities
- Gift vouchers for stays, wellness treatments and restaurants
- Wellness and beauty treatments can be booked directly
- Event organisation at the property
- WhatsApp contact button
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