This dense but visually seductive museum explores Bolzano's turbulent interwar years via the history of the fascist Monument to Victory, where it is sited. It's a thoughtful and overdue examination of a highly complex time in the South Tyrol's past and covers Bolzano's post-WWI handover to Italy and the later Nazi occupation. The displays on the radical urban transformation of the 1920s – the enduring face of Mussolini's 'Italianisation' project – are particularly fascinating.
BZ '18-'45
Bolzano (Bozen)
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
Schloss Trauttmansdorff Gardens
13.43 MILES
You could give an entire day to these beautiful botanical gardens a little outside Merano (and they do suggest it). Exotic cacti and palms, fruit trees…
Museo Archeologico dell'Alto Adige
0.21 MILES
The star of the Museo Archeologico dell’Alto Adige is Ötzi, the Iceman, with almost the entire museum being given over to the Copper Age mummy. Kept in a…
28.92 MILES
Atmospherically set in a castle 15km south of Brunico and full of folk treasures, this is the best of three museums in this region devoted to Ladin…
0.27 MILES
Bolzano's four-storey contemporary art space is housed in a huge multifaceted glass cube, a brave architectural surprise that beautifully vignettes the…
Chiesetta di San Giovanni in Ranui
20.31 MILES
Sitting alone in a meadow below the gargantuan spiky peaks of the Odle mountain group, this tiny and almost impossibly picturesque onion-steepled church …
19.86 MILES
This stunning Gothic castle, some of it dating to the 1250s, occupies a panoramic position and typifies the region's architectural style.
Parco Naturale Adamello Brenta
25.31 MILES
This wild and beautiful park encompasses more than 80 lakes and the vast Adamello glacier, which was once home to the Alps' only brown bears. Although…
Messner Mountain Museum Firmiano
2.36 MILES
The imposing Castel Firmiano, dating back to AD 945, is the centrepiece of mountaineer Reinhold Messner's six museums. Based around humankind's…
Nearby Bolzano (Bozen) attractions
1. Museo Archeologico dell'Alto Adige
0.21 MILES
The star of the Museo Archeologico dell’Alto Adige is Ötzi, the Iceman, with almost the entire museum being given over to the Copper Age mummy. Kept in a…
0.27 MILES
Bolzano's four-storey contemporary art space is housed in a huge multifaceted glass cube, a brave architectural surprise that beautifully vignettes the…
3. Chiesa e Convento dei Domenicani
0.38 MILES
The chapel (Cappella di San Giovanni) and adjacent cloisters here feature touching, vibrant 14th-century frescoes by school-of-Giotto artists.
4. Chiesa e Convento dei Francescani
0.42 MILES
The 14th-century Chiesa di Francescani features beautiful cloisters and a magnificent Gothic altarpiece, carved in 1500 by Hans Klocker.
0.46 MILES
This splendid Gothic cathedral is Bolzano's most emblematic building, its imposing spires and polychrome tiled roof backed by the equally Gothic peaks of…
1.34 MILES
This stunningly located castle was built in 1237 but is renowned for its vivid 14th-century frescoes. These are particularly rare, with themes that are…
7. Messner Mountain Museum Firmiano
2.36 MILES
The imposing Castel Firmiano, dating back to AD 945, is the centrepiece of mountaineer Reinhold Messner's six museums. Based around humankind's…
9.25 MILES
The Weinstrasse's little Lake Kaltern may look rather small compared to Northern Italy's splendid collection of lakes, but up close it's a stunningly…