Culinarium Alpinum offers eight seminar and banquet rooms in the former Capuchin monastery of Stans, in central Switzerland. Groups range from 12 delegates in the smallest seminar room to 150 guests in the Klostersaal, and the house also runs a restaurant, a hotel and a cooking studio under the same roof.
Seminars and company events
The monastery has a large conference and event infrastructure, with all eight rooms fitted with modern technology. The five seminar rooms are named after Alpine regions. Puschlav is the largest at 46.7 square meters and takes 20 people in a seminar or U-shape layout and 26 in a chair circle. Vintschgau and Bergell measure 34 square meters each and take 16 in most layouts. Isere measures 32.7 square meters and takes 16. Oberkrain, at 27.5 square meters, takes 12. All have daylight and warm wooden floors, and the venue describes them as deliberately simple rooms for focused work. Montafon, at 21.9 square meters, is set up with standing tables.
For larger meetings the Inner Choir, a 90-square-meter former private area of the Capuchin brothers, takes 100 people theater style and 56 in a block layout. The Klostersaal, a 130-square-meter hall that once housed the monastery library, takes 152 theater style and 60 in a seminar layout. Both can host lectures, readings and plenary sessions.
Weddings and receptions
The venue lists weddings among the uses of the Inner Choir. The Klostersaal has a direct door to the garden room, so a banquet or party can extend outdoors in good weather. The Klostersaal also hosts dance evenings. The cloister and its inner courtyard, 170 square meters together, hold up to 100 people for an aperitif. The Werkstatt, a bright 35-square-meter room, seats 26 for a banquet.
Rooms and capacities
The largest space is the Klostersaal at about 130 square meters, with room for 150 people. The Inner Choir follows at about 90 square meters. The cooking studio, called Kochstudio Goms, covers 80 square meters with three cooking islands and holds up to 25 people, with 15 recommended for cooking courses. Menu and aperitif proposals, wine suggestions and a banquet and seminar information sheet are available as downloads on the official page.
Accommodation
The monastery houses a hotel that is open all year. The number of bedrooms is not given on the seminar page, so check it with the venue when planning a residential seminar.
Catering
The restaurant is open daily from 7:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and until 1:00 p.m. on Sundays. The kitchen works with local ingredients and Alpine products. The house also has a monastery shop, an Alp Sbrinz cheese cellar and a walk-in wine list, which can give a group something to visit between sessions.
History and setting
The building is a former Capuchin monastery, and the rooms keep its vaults, cloister and wooden floors. The Klostersaal still shows the marks of the library shelves in its floor. The garden is planted as an edible landscape. Today the site operates as a center of competence for Alpine food, backed by a foundation.
Getting there
The address is Mürgstrasse 18 in Stans, in the canton of Nidwalden. A directions page is on the official site.
