Two ancient inns, a post station, and a dream come true
Side by side for centuries, and always with a wall between them. Both buildings look back on a long—yet very different—history: Although the Hotel Lamm has always been in vogue, the Hotel Post closed down for a number of years. Until one day, that is, when Verena and Stefanie from the Hotel Lamm decided to weave history together and bring the time-honoured inns together, interweaving the tapestry of the times and breathing life into what has now become the Posthotel Lamm of Vipiteno. And at last, a long-nurtured dream has come true.
The story begins around 600 years ago in the fifteenth century, when a late-Gothic building was constructed along the main street of the city and, shortly afterwards, became the Zum Lamm inn. At around the same time an adjoining building was erected, practically identical to the first, which likewise became an inn, and went by the name of Zum Goldenen Stern. Through all of the vicissitudes of fate and changes of hands, the two hotels have survived to this day.
One unusual feature of the Zum Goldenen Stern is the post station to the rear of the building with an adjoining haybarn, where travellers of bygone days could change horses. From the end of the 19th century to the early years of the 20th century, the hotel also housed the post office and, as such, was rechristened the Gasthaus Neue Post, a name which remained for over a century of thriving business.
After a succession of changes in management and ownership, the Zum Lamm was purchased by its current-day owners, the Bacher family, in 1958. They converted the ground floor of the hotel into a restaurant and the upper floors into welcoming bedrooms for holidaymakers—the first in Vipiteno with en-suite bathroom and merged the two barns at the back. And thus, the modern-day Hotel Lamm was born.
These ancient inns—post station and hay barn included—have been united by the vision and foresight of Verena and Stefanie Bacher, and are complemented by the construction of a large new building which, within its walls, brings together the past, the present, and a glimpse of the future.