Old building hotel in the old building district

Experience the charm of the Wilhelminian era in a hotel: If you dream of a stylish apartment in an old building, you can try out the Hotel Andrä: The Belle Etage Hotel extends over three floors of a time-honored Wilhelminian era building. The Faberhäuser are impressive Wilhelminian era buildings with elaborate facades and beautiful staircases. The front is extremely representative, while the back is blessed with hidden courtyards and gardens. What was once used as apartments and later as offices became a 3-star hotel on the initiative of the Salzburg hoteliers, the Wendl family. A conscious decision, as there are already enough luxury hotels in the area.

"The Andräviertel is a place for Salzburgers, for creative people from all areas, and thanks to the Mozarteum University, many young talents from all over the world are here in the district. We wanted to create a hotel that builds a bridge between guests and locals," says Raffaela Wendl, the second generation to take over the management of the family-run hotel group. "I love the district myself because it is so diverse. The weekly market, the Schranne, is always right in front of the hotel on Thursdays. Perfect for foodies, who can find everything from organic fruit to artisanal bread to handmade jams here." Even when there is no market, the range of food and restaurants in the Andräviertel is huge.

"Here, too, the old building factor comes into play. Many of these cafes and bars are in historic buildings. From rustic beer halls under vaulted ceilings to cafes with high ceilings, I love how the location is staged in the Andräviertel," says Raffaela Wendl.

It's all about the good mix

Why is the Andräviertel so livable? Because the houses practically invite you to use them in a good mix. While the ground floors often contain shops, restaurants or offices, the upper floors alternate between offices and apartments. Because the houses in the Andräviertel all belong to the old town protection zone, the streetscape is very harmonious and uniform, and there are hardly any architectural defects. "That can be challenging, as was the case with our conversion from offices to a hotel. But of course we have to preserve the historic charm of the district," Raffaela Wendl is convinced.

The residents of the district are also a diverse mix: from expats to natives of the Andräviertel, from seniors to schoolchildren. There is even a municipal school near the Andrä Hotel, and the indoor swimming pool in the Mirabell Gardens, which is unfortunately currently closed, is not far away either. In this way, the city ensures that the district not only has beautiful facades, but that life also flourishes behind them.

From wetlands to real estate gold

The Andräviertel did not always have its current status as a sought-after residential area: When the most prominent lady of her time moved here in 1606, it was almost like exile: Salome Alt, secret wife of Archbishop Wolf-Dietrich and a legendary beauty. The whole city was full of admiration for her, and she had fifteen children with Wolf-Dietrich. Because all of this was not appropriate for an archbishop, Salome lived with her children outside the city walls.

To make the farewell easier, Wolf-Dietrich built Altenau Castle and had a magnificent garden built around it. His successor found all of this terribly immoral, locked Wolf-Dietrich in prison, drove out Salome Alt and her children, and had the palace renamed Mirabell.

To this day, it remains a defining part of Salzburg, and the Mirabell Gardens are one of the most famous photo spots in Salzburg. The pompous registry office is popular with people wanting to get married from all over the world, and from May onwards, marriages are performed here every 15 minutes.

From the suburbs to the old town

When the medieval city of Salzburg on the right bank of the Salzach was bursting at the seams, building contractors set their sights on the Andräviertel. The fact that the Schallmoos district borders the Andräviertel already implies that it was difficult to cultivate the wet meadows. But a veritable construction boom at the turn of the 19th/20th century was to change that: citizens soon moved from the right bank of the old town to the new town because they finally wanted to escape the medieval low ceilings and the constant risk of fire in Salzburg's old town. There, the houses and roofs are often seamlessly connected to one another, which in earlier times meant that city fires spread extremely quickly.

This lesson was learned for many houses in the Andräviertel: Often the large, usually four-story buildings stand alone, just as often they are designed as a square building with an inner courtyard, but then spatially separated from the next complex. Since many of the houses were planned when it was still common to have servants, there are different levels of equipment in the houses: While the representative parts of the Andrä houses are equipped with stucco ceilings and artistic staircases, the simple people lived in the rear and darker parts of the houses: Not only was the stucco saved here, the sanitary facilities were also very sparse and had to be retrofitted in many houses. There is little sign of this once austere life in the Andräviertel today: High-income families live here, and the large, stucco-decorated apartments achieve top prices, whether for rent or as properties for sale.