Grand Hotel Dobbiaco in South Tyrol Italy

The tourism in the Puster Valley is inseparably linked to the construction of the Puster Valley Railway. In the Danube Monarchy, the Southern Railway Company operated two major north-south routes through the Alps from the mid-19th century: one from Vienna via the Semmering to Graz, Maribor and Ljubljana to Trieste, and the other from Kufstein via the Brenner Pass to Verona. The railway line through the Puster Valley is part of the connecting route between these two lines, which leads from Maribor via Klagenfurt to Fortezza.

In November 1871, the over 200 km long route from Villach to the Eisack Valley was ceremoniously opened after only two years of construction. However, since the railway line's revenues initially fell short of the operators' expectations, it was decided to boost tourism by building hotels. In the Puster Valley, Toblach was chosen as the location, where the Puster Valley Railway also reached its highest point at the Toblach Saddle at around 1215 m above sea level.

In the summer season of 1878, the Southern Railway Hotel, as it was then called, went into operation. With a capacity of 80 beds, it was initially by no means a luxury hotel, but rather a functional, hardly representative building. Nevertheless, thanks to the emerging tourism, it managed to attract numerous guests and especially some prominent figures. The hotel was gradually expanded and eventually expanded to 350 beds. Soon it was a real grand hotel, exuding the luxury and flair of the monarchy. In 1887, the German heir to the throne, Friedrich, spent his summer vacation in Toblach, followed by King Albert of Saxony, the Austrian Archduchess Stephanie, and King Milan of Serbia. But also artists, writers, and musicians were guests, one of the most famous being Gustav Mahler, who spent his last three summers from 1908 to 1911 in Toblach and composed his IX. Symphony and the "Song of the Earth" here, among other works.

As with many comparable hotels, the heyday of the Fin de siècle was followed by decline in the 20th century. The house did not suffer direct war damage in the First World War, but was used as a military hospital and thus severely affected. After the collapse of the Danube Monarchy and the political upheavals of the 1920s, the regular clientele of the grand hotel stayed away. The economic crisis brought about the final bankruptcy, numerous changes of ownership followed, and for decades no coherent concept for the further use of the former luxury hotel could be implemented.

It was only in the 1990s that the decline was halted. The Grand Hotel was converted into a cultural center and extensively renovated. The extensive buildings in the midst of the well-kept park now house, among other things, a cultural and congress center, a music school, the nature park house, and a holiday home. The highlight is the concert hall dedicated to Gustav Mahler, with around 460 seats. Its fantastic acoustics host, among other events, the orchestral concerts of the summer Gustav Mahler Music Weeks and the South Tyrol Festival.