History of the building

What appears to be a single building today is actually made up of three former townhouses - "Zum Kremli", adjoined to the west by "Zum Egli" and "Zum grünen Gatter". The earliest mention appears in the Constance Cathedral Chapter of 1383 which named "Zum Kremli" as a new house. It belonged to the Episcopal fief of the Ulm family and was situated within the city walls of the 12th century. 

Following the Council of Constance (1414-1418), the house was for the first time referred to as an inn with a dance floor. The council chronicles of 1497/98 tell that a certain Ulrich von Kämlin was granted licence to serve his homemade wine on the premises, tho owner of which, however, was registered as Councillor Jakob Muntprat.

In 1520, the owner of "Zum Kremli", Hans Schulthaiß, acquired the neighbouring "Zum Egli". It is thought that this led to major reconstruction works on the first floor of the latter. Window pillars in late gothic style are engraved with the Schulthaiß family crest and the beautifully vaulted "Staufer Cellar" is likely to date back to this period, too. Further reconstruction works in 1612/13 resulted in the facades being reworked with new window shapes and created the impression of a single building. 


Unfortunately, after the sale of the building in 1671 to Mayor Gasser, holes began to appear in the deeds of the property. 




Old views of the Hotel Barbarossa

From 1780, the building also housed the post office, located in the arcades, until its relocation to the "Sonne" inn in the "Marktstätte". Around 1800, Rochus Hafner, former valet to General von Wolfess, set up a Viennese style coffee house which continued to operate under the succeeding owner Franz Leo. 

In 1863, Lorenz Duttlinger, of Riedern (near Waldshut), purchased the coffee house and first named it "Zum Barbarossa". Only 11 years later, in 1874, Martin Miehle bought the building for its beautiful vaulted cellar which he required to extend his winery business. 

The wine was sourced from the "Kaiserstuhl" region. From 1899 to 1903, guided by their mission statement "A truly welcoming place in a historic location", Martin Miehle and his son Karl converted the building into a hotel. The arcades were closed in order to house a new staircase. In the courtyard they created the necessary new departments such as laundry etc.


In 1905, the neighbouring "Zum grünen Gatter" was added to the property and houses today's Art-Déco-Hall with its prominent bay window. Also in this time the Barbarossa, as one of the first hotels in Constance, got a central steam heating system which also prepared running cold and hot water for each room.  

Since this time in general there were no big changes. The faceade is still the same. In 1990 the reception was transferred from the 1. floor to the ground floor and the elevator was installed. In the year 2012 the hotel kitchen has been completely reconstructed with the latest techniques. In order to do something sustainable for the environment, a heat recovery system was connected to the refrigeration plant, which preheats the water with the waste heat. In 2016, further investments were made in modern and environmentally friendly techniques. Since then, a combined heat and power plant supplies us not only with heat and hot walter but also with electricity.