The Krone family

The coat of arms in the entrance to the restaurant bears the date 1701 – and the ancestors of the Kuntz family can be traced back this far in the parish register in Hayna. However, one has to wait until 1780 until the first innkeeper (and farmer) in the family, Georg Martin Kuntz, graces the pages of history, a fact that is also recorded in the Hayna chronicle of the same year. Two generations later, in 1871, his grandson Augustin Kuntz receives a guild certificate as a waiter, with his later wife, Katharina, being awarded the certificate for cooks. They purchase the oldest inn in Hayna for 28000 gold marks in 1908, an establishment that their first-born son, Emil Kuntz, takes over in the same year.

The former post stage inn “Zum Kreuz” immediately next to the church, which acted as a station where horses could be changed for coaches travelling from Speyer to Weißenburg, thus becomes the “Gasthaus Zur Krone”. Travellers can still enjoy the best that Palatinate hospitality has to offer here – and this will not change for a long time under Emil Kuntz, the founder of this establishment. He manages the guesthouse for 52 years – but that is not all, as his existence is mainly supported by large farm interests at this time.

The present owner, Karl Kuntz, takes over the guesthouse in 1960 with his wife Erika. Together with their daughter, Karin, their son-in-law, Robert, son Karl-Emil and daughter-in-law Martina, their combined efforts have made this establishment what it is today – an address where carefully nurtured hospitality has become renowned well beyond the boundaries of the region.