A story of monastery, war, new beginnings — and Seefeld's most beautiful spot.
The story of the Sportalm is the story of a family that has welcomed guests for more than two hundred years — and of an alpine cabin born between war, return and a love of the mountains.
It begins with love. Emperor Maximilian I had fallen for the woods around “Sevelt” — today's Seefeld — while hunting, and in 1516 he endowed an Augustinian monastery for the Habsburg electors.
For more than two hundred years the monks welcomed pilgrims, nobles and travellers with food from their own farm, fish pond and brewery. The hospitality tradition that still connects Sportalm and Klosterbräu today begins inside these walls.
After Napoleon's secularisation the monastery was dissolved and auctioned. The village's postman and butcher acquired the entire estate — laying the foundation for the Seyrling family of innkeepers.
Since 1809 the house has been in the family. Six generations of hospitality, grown out of an auction.
During the Second World War and for several years after, Hotel Klosterbräu was requisitioned as a clinic — the family could not practise their trade.
So in 1948 Alois “Bubi” Seyrling, together with his wife Midi whom he had married in 1947, built the Sportalm — right at the valley station of the Gschwandtkopf lift, a true Tyrolean alpine cabin to host guests in.
When the clinic was moved back to Innsbruck, Bubi and Midi returned to Klosterbräu, which they would build into one of the country's most renowned hotels — later hosting Willy Brandt, Queen Silvia, the Shah of Persia.
The Sportalm they leased — first to Alma Seelos, later to Anneliese Wenta. It stayed in trusted hands, even when the family no longer hosted there themselves.
In the summer of 1984 the Sportalm was renovated from the foundations and completely rebuilt — into the rustic, characterful alpine cabin we know today, with around 220 seats, alpine parlours and the sun terrace before the mountain panorama.
Son Charles Seyrling took over together with his wife Monika — the beginning of a new era.
Today the Seyrling family runs the Sportalm in its third generation here: Charles and Monika together with their daughter Maria.
Tyrolean cuisine, alpine flair, a restaurant and apartments in alpine style — and the same passion with which the family has been hosting for generations. The Sportalm remains what it has always been: a hospitable home at Seefeld's most beautiful spot.
We are innkeepers. Since 1809.
