THE PLACE TO ENJOY
CHRISTMAS AT PICHLARN CASTLE
It’s a special time of year that enchants people with all its scents, lights and festivities. At the
IMLAUER Hotel Schloss Pichlarn
we want to offer our guests a relaxing and restful Advent and Christmas season.
The entire team at the IMLAUER Hotel Schloss Pichlarn, especially Ines Wohlmuther-Maier, ensures that our guests feel at home. She works tirelessly with heart and soul to ensure that our guests have a wonderful time and inspires staff and guests alike.
Ines Wohlmuther-Maier has been working at Schloss Pichlarn for 25 years and has celebrated many Christmas parties with our guests as hotel manager. We spoke to her about the festive season, our Christmas program and the special atmosphere at Schloss Pichlarn.
There is a magical Advent atmosphere at the IMLAUER Hotel Schloss Pichlarn. What do you particularly like about this time?
It is a special atmosphere during Advent. The whole house is decorated and we prepare everything for the guests, the cookies are baked, the
program for Christmas
and New Year’s Eve are put together, the fairy lights are put up. This year especially beautiful with lights on the house, in the castle park and the driveway. The whole house is becoming more and more festive and our guests and staff are happy about that.
Guests who come during Advent tend to want to calm down and relax a little. Far away from the hustle and bustle and shopping. They prefer the peace and quiet and then have a punch with us and enjoy the tower brass band. It’s all a bit decelerating.
This time is always beautiful. This year we are very lucky with the blanket of snow that winter has already given us. The setting is of course perfect. A beautiful place to come to rest, this contemplative time.
A great program awaits our guests this year. Among other things, we welcome tower wind players.
So our guests can get into the Christmas spirit. On Advent Saturdays, the tower wind players play next to the winter garden in the Rondeau from 5.30 pm. We have illuminated the whole thing beautifully, our guests can drink a glass of punch or mulled wine and enjoy the music. It’s a lovely way to get in the mood for the evening, simply calm down and enjoy the Advent season.
The four musicians come from the Irdning band. The tower blowing has a long tradition during Advent and it is fitting that the brass ensemble comes from a club with such a long tradition.
December 15th will be a very special day for the IMLAUER Hotel Schloss Pichlarn. What is happening here?
On December 15, we are celebrating a double event. We officially open the new lighting around our hotel, which gives our hotel a festive glow.
On this day, however, we are also launching a new theme for our house, namely art, under the motto
KUNSTvoll
. Together with the art expert Dr. Brandstetter, Mr. Imlauer has selected and acquired several works of art, which we will present on this day.
There are a total of six pictures by three different artists; Gottfried Mairwöger, Stefan Glettler and Levente Szücs. The pictures are a great enhancement for our new conservatory and our hotel. The wonderful colors of the pictures make the winter garden even cozier and the guests who have already seen the pictures are thrilled.
The evening will be accompanied by music from a pianist from nearby Bad Aussee, and then the culinary delights are not to be missed out. Our chef will conjure up a great menu to go with it.
We would like to further establish the topic of art in the future and it is certainly also interesting for our guests.
I’m very happy about it and I often walk through the conservatory in the morning and enjoy how beautiful it is. You can feel the energy emanating from the pictures and the colors.
What are you most looking forward to at Christmas?
For me, Christmas is the celebration of family. You meet up with the family and spend a few quiet hours together. But of course also with the castle family, the Pichlarn family, i.e. with colleagues and guests. Christmas is a very quiet, contemplative, yet joyful time.
At Christmas, I always take my guests for a walk around the golf course, where we chat and then have a glass of punch or mulled wine – it’s very informal.
What sweet surprise awaits all the guests we welcome over Christmas?
It is a tradition here in Pichlarn that guests receive a small plate of cookies in their room on Christmas Day. A gift from us, a piece of “Christmas like at home”.
Our castle kitchen has already been busy and has baked a total of 28 kilos of cookies. It smells wonderful. I have already had the pleasure of tasting the Christmas bakery, and it is very good.
What do you suggest to those guests who like Christmas to be a little more atmospheric?
When guests stay at our hotel, Pichlarn is their home for the Christmas season and we want to give our guests a great Christmas. For guests in the suites, it is particularly atmospheric when they light the open fireplace. It’s perfect for Christmas. Or you can go for a walk in the snow.
We also recommend that our guests have a Christmas tree placed in their room. That immediately creates more atmosphere. The trees can be ordered with or without decoration. Some of our regular guests leave the Christmas tree decorations in the hotel so that they can use them again next year. We always keep this carefully and are happy when our guests come back.
We have many regular guests who come every year to ski, relax, be pampered in the spa and simply enjoy a relaxing vacation. During this time, guests with several generations, parents, children and grandchildren also like to come. This is especially nice when you can welcome families over several generations again and again.
On December 27, we invite you to a presentation of handmade jewelry and fashion by Susanne Spatt.
This is a wonderful cooperation with Susanne Spatt, a traditional costume and jewelry designer from Salzburg, and her husband Markus Wach, who produces hand-printed fabrics in Bad Aussee. They have a showcase in which they display the latest traditional costume fashions. Now we thought we’d invite you to present your fashion to us.
There will be a small vernissage in the fireplace room. They will talk a little about their fashion and their craft, present their fashions and we will serve a glass of aperitif.
But there is another cooperation that our guests can look forward to.
Yes, our baker, Markus Trafella, is coming to the hotel and will be baking with our guests. Every day, he supplies us with the wonderful breads and pastries that he produces in his bakery. On this day, he will present his craft and show guests how to bake their own rolls. We’re really looking forward to it, and it’s sure to go down well with our guests too.
On New Year’s Eve, we follow in the culinary footsteps of Archduke Johann and Anna Plochl. What can our guests expect?
We notice time and again that our guests are interested in regional dishes and want to get to know Styrian cuisine. That’s why chef Gottfried Prall has prepared
New Year’s Eve
has created a fantastic 6-course menu that harks back to the time of Archduke Johann and Anna Plochl, but with a modern twist. If you like, you are welcome to come in traditional costume and the decorations will also be more classic.
We also offer our guests a great entertainment program with dinner music and then a party atmosphere with a DJ. There will also be a photo box, fireworks and the New Year’s waltz on our terrace.
Our dear Mr. Patrick, who has been with us for many, many years and will now be retiring, dresses up as a chimney sweep on New Year’s Eve and then goes through and hands out lucky charms. Our guests love that.
On New Year’s Day, we will once again broadcast the New Year’s Concert in the Red Salon. If you like, you can take a look, even during our extended breakfast. That is always a very nice atmosphere.
