Messner Mountain Museum

Trentino & South Tyrol


Located – quite literally – inside a hill, the unique Messner Mountain Museum Ortles articulates the theme of ‘ice’ with artistically presented exhibits on glaciers, ice-climbing and pole expeditions, all at 1900m. Especially evocative is the museum's collection of outdoor gear, from climbing axes to sleds used on polar expeditions. Downstairs you'll find a minicinema showing snow- and ice-related films including one about Messner's voyage across Antartica.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Trentino & South Tyrol attractions

1. Parco Nazionale dello Stelvio

2.23 MILES

This is northern Italy's, and the Alps', largest national park, spilling into the next-door region of Lombardy and bordering Switzerland's Parco Nazionale…

2. Museum

9.25 MILES

The museum next door to Kloster St Johann takes you through part of the monastery complex, with Carolingian art and other relics.

3. Kloster St Johann

9.26 MILES

Vibrant Carolingian (9th century) and Romanesque (12th century) frescos smother the interior of the church of Benedictine Kloster St Johann. Beneath…

4. Glorenza

9.69 MILES

A walled medieval town, Glorenza (Glurns) was once a kingpin in the region’s salt trade. Its pristine burgher houses, colonnaded shops, town gates,…

5. Marienberg

12.44 MILES

Perched high above the village of Burgeis (Burgusio) at 1340m, the beautiful Benedictine monastery of Marienberg has a museum dedicated to its eight…

6. Area Faunistica Pejo

12.65 MILES

For an up-close look at the red and roe deer indigenous to Parco Nazionale dello Stelvio, visit this small hillside wildlife centre, dedicated to caring…

7. Segheria Veneziana dei Bègoi

12.97 MILES

This working 18th-century 'Venetian sawmill', powered by the rushing waters of the Torrente Rabbiés and built according to a design reputedly conceived by…

8. Reschensee

18.77 MILES

Just south of Reschenpass (Passo di Resia) and the Austrian border is the deep blue Reschensee, a result of 1950s dam projects. The drowned Romanesque…