Dear guests and friends of the hotel,
since 1 January 2023, hotel operations will pause for about four years. The restaurant and the Bierstüberl will also be closed during this time.
History
A terrace becomes world-famous
As in every town in southern Germany, a tavern, with its own butcher and bakery, was founded in the Feldafing community near its circa 1508 church. The castle lords of Garatshausen provided the tavern with the privilege and license to operate.
In 1856, Counsellor Anton Ritter von Maffei, industrialist from Munich, who also was a major landlord in Feldafing, bought the tavern with a sure hunch that the beauty of the surrounding landscape lended itself to the construction of an inn sporting a terrace with a view.
This „Terraced Inn“, managed with care by Johann und Elisabeth Hierl, became very frequently visited. With the development of the new railway line, the popularity of the inn was such that local architect Johann Biersack was hired to design the necessary enlargement of the structure into a Swiss-style hotel.
With the Empress Elisabeth of Austria summering at the property on a yearly basis, in 1870, a noteworthy expansion of the property’s facilities was undertaken, which included a second structure and stables. The Bavarian Princess, „Sisi“, grew up in nearby Possenhofen Castle and therefore enjoyed being very close to her family while staying at the hotel. At the premises, she would meet with her cousin Ludwig II, and from the hotel, she would commence long walks and rides on horesback to Andechs and Munich.
On June 13, 1886, the day that the unlucky Bavarian king died, Sisi hurried by coach from Feldafing to the mountains, where she suffered a horrible shock when she learned about the circumstances of her father’s death, which to this day are unclear. The summer of 1894 was the last summer the Empress stayed here. In the town’s church, an elaborately designed window – donated by Kaiser Franz Joseph – serves as a memento of this magnificent time.
Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, was murdered in 1898 in Genf.
In 1900, permission was given by the Grand Marshall’s office in Vienna to call the house “Hotel of Empress Elisabeth”. In that same year, the hotel fell into the possession of the Kraft-Borchard family, and little by little, the hotel has developed its current appearance.
