Ten Generations on the Village Square
An inn has stood on Schwarzenberg's village square since at least 1601; the house you sleep in today was rebuilt in Alemannic timber after the fire of 1755 took it, the church and fourteen neighbours with it. The Fetz family has run it for ten generations — Peter and Pia Fetz since 2017 — and what they keep is neither a museum nor a renovation project but a working Gasthof that happens to hold a three-toque kitchen, a Michelin Green Star and a collection of contemporary art on its panelled walls. Twenty-six rooms are divided between the old inn and the Wälderhaus beside it, and since 2024 an underground passage runs from both into a new timber bathhouse whose facade the guests adjust themselves, slat by slat. Outside: the Bregenzerwald, shingled houses, cheese dairies, and a village church holding the only wall paintings Angelika Kauffmann ever made.
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Photography © Hirschen Schwarzenberg.
Rooms & Availability
Classic Double Room
The smallest rooms in the 1755 house, and part of the reason the Hirschen still reads as an inn rather than a hotel — queen-size beds, creaking floorboards and a window onto the village. Breakfast included.
Classic Double Room
Superior Double Room
Larger rooms in the old house, each furnished differently: king-size beds, panelled walls, a tiled stove here and there, and a piece from the family's collection where a television would otherwise hang.
Superior Double Room
The Duplex Suite
A junior suite arranged over two floors, with a long lounging sofa upstairs and a generous bathroom below. Room for a third guest, and stairs of your own.
The Duplex Suite
The Balcony Suite
The iconic room of the house: a balcony over the garden, a writing desk at the window, and the particular quiet that a village of eighteen hundred people supplies for free.
The Balcony Suite
King Max Suite
Named for Maximilian II of Bavaria, who came through with his entourage around 1856. Antique furniture, a view over the village centre, and an original ceiling painting from 1812 overhead.
King Max Suite
Suite S in the Wälderhaus
The smallest of the Wälderhaus suites, on the first, second or third floor: king-size beds, an open-plan kitchen, mountains through the window and the lift straight down to the bathhouse.
Suite S in the Wälderhaus
Suite M in the Wälderhaus
Built for the long stay. A 200 × 200 bed in the separate bedroom, a pull-out sofa in the open kitchen, floor cooling for the hot weeks, and ingredients from the hotel shop if you would rather cook than come down.
Suite M in the Wälderhaus
Suite M+ in the Wälderhaus
Two bedrooms, king- and queen-size, a bathroom with separate WC, and a living room that holds everyone in between. For four people who know each other well enough to share a kitchen.
Suite M+ in the Wälderhaus
Suite L in the Wälderhaus
Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two entrances — the arrangement that lets four people share a suite without having to share everything. From the beds you look straight up at the sky.
Suite L in the Wälderhaus
Rooftop Loft in the Wälderhaus
The flagship, under the roof of the Wälderhaus: a kitchen with coffee machine and bar, a bathroom holding both tub and shower, and windows in every direction onto the church tower and the mountains. Two sleep in luxury, two more in the bunk bed.
Rooftop Loft in the Wälderhaus
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Amenities
A separate Badehaus behind the Gasthof holds the fifteen-metre outdoor pool, two saunas and the treatment rooms; the Wälderstuben and the Landammannsaal stay in the timber house itself.
Photography © Hirschen Schwarzenberg.
SCHWARZENBERG | OCTOBER 2026
A Bregenzerwald Inn That Has Been Rebuilding Itself for Ten Generations
In the centre of Schwarzenberg, the Hirschen occupies one of the most distinctive squares in the Bregenzerwald. The village church, fountain and broad wooden houses form a remarkably intact ensemble, while the Hirschen itself brings together several generations of the region’s architecture and hospitality.
There has been a tavern on this spot since at least 1601. After a fire destroyed much of the square in 1755, the present house was rebuilt as a broad Alemannic timber building in the local Bauernbarock style. The Fetz family has run the Hirschen ever since, now in its tenth generation. Inside, three original Wälderstuben and the Landammannsaal — a ballroom dating from around 1882 — retain much of the character of the old house.
But the Hirschen is not simply a place preserved in time. Since Franz Fetz took over in 1975, the family has gradually filled the house with contemporary art, and the next generation has continued to build on what was there rather than replace it. Today, the hotel feels less like a historical monument than a living house, where old rooms, regional craftsmanship and contemporary design sit comfortably alongside one another.
The kitchen follows much the same philosophy. Raphaela and Jonathan Burger work with the whole animal, fermentation and long-aged ingredients, cooking in close connection with the traditions of the region while taking them somewhere more contemporary. Dinner is served across the original rooms, with Kässpätzle still finding its place alongside more ambitious dishes. The restaurant holds three toques and sixteen points from Gault&Millau for 2026, as well as a Michelin Green Star.
The newest expression of the Hirschen is the Badehaus, opened in May 2024. Designed by Dornbirn practice NONA Architektinnen, the two-storey timber building sits quietly behind the historic houses, with a fifteen-metre pool, two saunas and a garden planted in the loose, naturalistic style of Piet Oudolf. Movable wooden slats allow each guest to shape the light and privacy around the pool. Regional timber and Bregenzerwald craftsmanship run through the building, while an underground passage connects it directly to the older parts of the hotel.
It is this combination that makes the Hirschen distinctive: a place deeply rooted in Schwarzenberg and the Bregenzerwald, but not interested in standing still. The old house, the kitchen, the art and the new Badehaus all belong to the same story — one that has been evolving for more than four centuries.
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