In 1912, Habsburg physicians identified a south-facing slope on Northern Italy’s Plose massif as possessing four conditions they considered superior to better-known Alpine health stations for treating tuberculosis: pure artesian spring water filtered through dolomite rock at 6,100 feet; roughly 300 days of annual sunshine on a slope sheltered from northern winds; clean mountain air where Adriatic currents meet Alpine masses; and a mild microclimate produced by all three converging at exactly the right altitude. They commissioned a sanatorium. World War I halted construction. Soon after, the Treaty of Saint-Germain transferred South Tyrol to Italy in 1919. The complex served briefly as a climate station for veterans, then as a retreat for clergymen through the 1950s, before being abandoned entirely. The forest enjoyed four decades reclaiming it.

When South Tyrolean hotelier Alois Hinteregger stumbled on the overgrown site around 2000, noticing a mysterious roofline from a nearby family hut, he climbed a fence into dense vegetation and entered a dim wooden building that had been invisible from every surrounding path for decades. His son Stefan and partner Teresa Unterthiner spent eight years developing what became Forestis, a 62-suite retreat that opened in 2020 with three larch-clad towers rising vertically through the tree canopy, designed by Brixen-based architect Armin Sader of ASAGGIO to avoid felling a single mature spruce. The towers look outward. Every suite faces west toward the jagged Odle range and the solitary Peitlerkofel, the northernmost summit of the Dolomites proper. There is no artwork on the walls. The view is the artwork.

The Forestis Villa, which opened in February 2025 roughly a hundred yards from the main structure, does something different with that inheritance. The five-bedroom, nearly 13,000-square-foot residence occupies the original doctor's house, built in 1912 to serve the physicians of the planned sanatorium. Where the towers are vertical and transparent, the villa is low, enclosed, and partially shielded by old-growth forest. Its traditional Kastenfenster, the double-paned box windows characteristic of Austro-Hungarian Alpine construction, interrupt the Dolomite views rather than frame them. The landing between floors is oddly uneven. The floorboards creak. The carved entrance ornamentation carries the visual grammar of regional Jugendstil. None of this was a problem to solve. All of it was the material Sader chose to protect.

"The design approach for the villa is quite different from that of the main hotel," Sader says. "In this case, the focus was not on framing views, but on preserving and celebrating the character of the historic building itself." Teresa Unterthiner and Stefan Hinteregger obtained the original hand-drawn construction plans from the Vienna city archive and led the restoration in close cooperation with the Provincial Heritage Office in Bolzano. Specialist restorers familiar with early-20th-century Tyrolean craft techniques oversaw the execution. The pinewood facade was taken down, restored, and reassembled plank by plank. Every larch and spruce floorboard was numbered, removed, cleaned, dried, and returned to its original position. Doors bearing antique cast-iron handles typical of Alpine holiday homes went through the same process. The coffered wooden ceilings were preserved. The imposing original staircase was restored in place.

Yet the real intervention happens where you can't see it. A roughly 4,300-square-foot private spa occupies the basement, with a heated indoor-outdoor pool, Finnish sauna, steam room, cold pool, treatment room, and a relaxation lounge with a wood-burning fireplace and a glass panel that opens directly onto the snow. "The spa area, which is a completely new addition, was deliberately placed in the basement," Sader shares. "This allowed us to meet all technical and spatial requirements without affecting the historic character of the villa above." The same logic governed the underfloor heating, electrical systems, and five new en-suite bathrooms. While the infrastructure descends, heritage remains at eye level.

Carpentry Group Frener, based in St. Leonhard just a few miles down the mountain, executed the woodwork under managing director Robert Eisenstecken and master carpenter Albin Frener. Their commission ran from structural beams to hand-carved bowls and spoons, all from solid untreated local timber. Stonemason Manuel Moling contributed bespoke stone finishes using techniques that bridge traditional Tyrolean craft and contemporary application. The material palette follows ASAGGIO's "four elements" framework applied across both the main hotel and the villa, where stone represents water, glass represents air, untreated wood represents climate, and natural linen fabrics woven in a Trentino mill represent sun. Synthetic materials are nowhere to be found in the building.

The furniture tells the clearest story about what separates the two structures architecturally. At the main hotel, Sader's pieces are clean-lined and contemporary, designed to recede against the views. In the villa, every new object was built to look as though it had always been there. "A contemporary language would have felt out of place here," Sader admits. "All new elements, including the furniture, were carefully developed to resonate with the existing fabric, often with a deliberately traditional appearance." A child's cradle has been stripped to bare wood. Roof beams from the original structure were repurposed as a wine-tasting table in the stone cellar. Ceramics by a Brixen-based artist sit alongside preserved architectural details. Meanwhile, the hotel's sole decorative object, a 130-million-year-old fossil, simply has no equivalent here. "The historic building itself, with its materials, craftsmanship, and architectural details, becomes the artwork," Sader says.

The villa accommodates up to ten guests with a dedicated chef, butler, and concierge, and as a first for Forestis, welcomes children under 14. A roughly 10,800-square-foot private garden faces south toward the Dolomites, with a heated pool, herb garden, outdoor kitchen, and a path leading directly to the Plose ski slopes. The forest reclaimed this building once. Sader's achievement is making it feel as though it never left.

Rates start at approximately $20,700 per night.