History - King Ortler and the ‘Bella Vista’

The hotel’s history is closely connected with the conquest of South Tyrol’s – and at the time, Austria’s – highest summit. The first ascent of the Ortler was accomplished in 1804. Thereafter large numbers of adventurers and landscape painters were drawn to the surroundings of the 3,905 metre (12,812 ft) giant and consequently to Trafoi, bringing with them a new source of income to the valley. A mountain inn was built: the cornerstone for the building of the hotel ‘Schöne Aussicht’ (‘Beautiful View’) at Trafoi was laid by the Ortler family in 1875, heralding in a new era for tourism in the Ortler area. Alpine tourism flourished during the ‘belle époque’ years from 1880 to 1914 attracting numerous illustrious guests to Trafoi. The hotel even stayed open during the war. Today the owners still count among the pioneers of tourism both in the Ortler area and in South Tyrol.

• There was a type of ski school at Trafoi back in 1936: the son of the hotel owners, Fritz Ortler, was the first ski instructor in the Ortler region. Together with other ski enthusiasts he founded the Trafoi ski school which was at the same time one of the very first in South Tyrol.

• In 1951 Georg Thöni of the hotel ‘Schöne Aussicht’ built the first one-seater chairlift in the Vinschgau area in collaboration with other hoteliers. It was a completely private initiative financed by the four hotel owners, for at the time nobody, neither the banks nor the provincial government of South Tyrol, was interested in investing in such a risky venture.

• During the 1970s Gustav Thöni was a top international skiing ace. Son of the proprietors of the Hotel Bella Vista, Anna and Georg Thöni, he won so many World Cup and Olympic races that South Tyrol’s popularity in Italy grew to the point where, from 1971 the number of overnight stays registered by Italian tourists grew from 2 to 3 million per annum in just two years.

In short...

‘Das Fähnlein von Trafoi’ (The small troop from Trafoi), first edition 1935
..."A frosty December night lies over the expanses of ice in the Ortler massif. The moon silently continues its orbit and pours a pale light of unimaginable beauty over the landscape. A chain of mighty ice colossuses, gleaming silver, towers against the dark-velvety bell of the night firmament like admonitory shrines from times long sunk in oblivion. Dark reefs of rock surrounded by a frozen surge tower like cliffs above the white sea. Thunderbolts have hacked away at their sharp edges; sun and frost have carved deep runes in their hoary walls. A numb, paralysed realm, an island of the Ice Age slumbers here in the heart of Europe like a Sleeping Beauty.”

‘Alpin’ magazine, 2007
“...The Furkel-Hütte refuge can be reached by lift. From there King Ortler and his retinue of Trafoi and Stilfs appear at their most imposing.

In short...

Even women are overcome by the allure of mountaineering. Luise Facilites was the first woman to climb the Ortler. She stayed at the ‘Hotel zur Schönen Aussicht’ and wrote in her diary about her stay at Trafoi and of various exciting expeditions.

Emperor Franz Joseph wanted to erect a memorial in the form of an obelisk on the Ortler on occasion of his government’s 40th anniversary. However he was prevented from doing so by the wintry weather in December 1888 and the parts of the obelisk were kept in the ‘Hotel zur Schönen Aussicht’ until the Emperor’s 50th anniversary Diamond Jubilee celebrations.