The Messner Mountain Museums (MMM) have been a 20-year labour of love for their founder, mountaineer Reinhold Messner. The six buildings that comprise his eponymous museums are scattered across a German-speaking part of the Italian Alps, in an area called South Tyrol. The sixth museum, in Corones, opened in 2015.
Regarded as one of the greatest mountaineers of all time, Messner has dedicated his life to the pursuit. He is the first mountaineer to have climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen – in 1978 – which most doctors and mountaineers thought impossible.
Why build six museums dedicated to one topic?
To me, there is only one Messner Mountain Museum – it’s in the centre and it’s the biggest one – but 10 years ago I decided to build five satellites around it, themed around particular mountaineering issues: rock, ice, mountain people, traditional alpinism and holy mountains.
The project has been similar to climbing a mountain – you need equipment, knowledge, money, and especially willpower.
How is each museum different?
For each museum I found a special geographical position: the ice museum, MMM Ortles, is built under an icy mountain where avalanches are common. MMM Dolomites, is a museum in the clouds, on a high, rocky mountain and is open only four months of the year because the rest of the time there is so much snow nobody can go up there. From that summit you can see more than 1,000 rock peaks.
MMM Ripa is about the people of the mountains and is situated in a castle where visitors can see hundreds of mountain farms. The holy mountain museum, MMM Juval, is also a castle and is located where a frozen mummy called Ötzi was found 20 years ago.
The museum of traditional alpinism is in a position from where you can see the Dolomites – the most beautiful rock climbing area of the world –
and on the other side there are classical granite mountains.
Tell us about the latest addition.
Corones is the newest, and the final one, and is designed by Zaha Hadid. It is devoted to the subject of rock, so we decided to build the museum into the mountain, but with two big windows from which you can see the peaks outside, and a third part that’s a balcony.
It is important to me that my museums connect the mountains outside with the exhibitions inside to create a mirror-like relationship.
What is on display?
I have collected things associated with mountains for 50 years – sculptures, objects and paintings – and I have a huge collection of relics from famous mountaineers. So we tell the stories of mountaineering through these objects, together with quotes from philosophers. It is not a museum about art or nature. We are storytellers about mountains.
What’s your scariest experience that’s on display in the museum?
It was in 1970 on the Nanga Parbat mountain in Pakistan. On the way down from the summit, my brother Günther fell ill from altitude sickness and died under an avalanche. Thirty- five years later we found his body and I took home one of his shoes, which is now in a special room in MMM Firmian. This room tells stories about climbers who have died on mountains.
Why did you want to set up these museums?
I wanted to bring my heritage home – my heritage is not just my collection but also my knowledge about mountains.
After having the opportunity to go on more than 100 expeditions all over the world, involving thousands of climbs, and having met so many climbers in my lifetime, I feel I have a responsibility to bring these experiences together.
How do you tell the stories of mountaineering?
It is complicated to do so in a museum. Over the years, I have spoken to small audiences about my experiences. I have also written more than 50 books.
I also started giving big lectures to thousands of people. I can spend more than 300 pages writing about just one climb, but in a museum I might show one picture and write three sentences. It’s a different kind of storytelling.
Who visits your museums?
Tourists make up 99% of our visitors. South Tyrol, in the northern Italian Alps, is a beautiful area that many tourists visit in the summer. Only a few visitors are climbers or hikers.
What do you hope people will gain from visiting?
I want them to know what Reinhold Messner was the first mountaineer to climb the 14 highest mountains on Earth, all of them over 8,000 metres above sea level mountains are – dangerous, difficult – and I would like to give them knowledge about these experiences.
Is it difficult to build a museum so high up?
The highest of the six is Corones, which is between 7,000 and 8,000 feet up, and yes, it was difficult to build because it was so cold and there is lots of snow at that height.
Is it expensive to run?
Yes, because it is so high up: we need heating in the winter because it gets down to -30C at that height. It stays open through winter though, because the area is a popular ski resort so we get visitors at this time too.
Are there interactive displays?
There are, but there is no way for me to describe how cold it is on an 8,000-metre peak – I could create a room that was -40C, which people entered and left immediately, but it would not generate the same feeling of being on a mountain. The real cold you feel after days, not after one minute. Most people won’t have felt the wall of cold that you get on an 8,000-metre peak, so I try to recreate this situation with words, pictures and relics.
What’s next?
I am starting to do films about the relationship between humans and mountains. I was in Africa recently making one about Mount Kenya. I’m still climbing but not to the same level I did 20 or 30 years ago.
Main funder Reinhold Messner
Architect Zaha Hadid Architects
Design and application development IKON SRL
Structural engineer IPM
Mechanical engineer and fire protection Jud & Partner
Electrical engineer Studio GM
Lighting Zumtobel
Concrete Kargruber und Stoll
Facade Pichler Stahlbau
Facade panels Bau & Technologie
Admission Adult 8€
Regarded as one of the greatest mountaineers of all time, Messner has dedicated his life to the pursuit. He is the first mountaineer to have climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen – in 1978 – which most doctors and mountaineers thought impossible.
Why build six museums dedicated to one topic?
To me, there is only one Messner Mountain Museum – it’s in the centre and it’s the biggest one – but 10 years ago I decided to build five satellites around it, themed around particular mountaineering issues: rock, ice, mountain people, traditional alpinism and holy mountains.
The project has been similar to climbing a mountain – you need equipment, knowledge, money, and especially willpower.
How is each museum different?
For each museum I found a special geographical position: the ice museum, MMM Ortles, is built under an icy mountain where avalanches are common. MMM Dolomites, is a museum in the clouds, on a high, rocky mountain and is open only four months of the year because the rest of the time there is so much snow nobody can go up there. From that summit you can see more than 1,000 rock peaks.
MMM Ripa is about the people of the mountains and is situated in a castle where visitors can see hundreds of mountain farms. The holy mountain museum, MMM Juval, is also a castle and is located where a frozen mummy called Ötzi was found 20 years ago.
The museum of traditional alpinism is in a position from where you can see the Dolomites – the most beautiful rock climbing area of the world –
and on the other side there are classical granite mountains.
Tell us about the latest addition.
Corones is the newest, and the final one, and is designed by Zaha Hadid. It is devoted to the subject of rock, so we decided to build the museum into the mountain, but with two big windows from which you can see the peaks outside, and a third part that’s a balcony.
It is important to me that my museums connect the mountains outside with the exhibitions inside to create a mirror-like relationship.
What is on display?
I have collected things associated with mountains for 50 years – sculptures, objects and paintings – and I have a huge collection of relics from famous mountaineers. So we tell the stories of mountaineering through these objects, together with quotes from philosophers. It is not a museum about art or nature. We are storytellers about mountains.
What’s your scariest experience that’s on display in the museum?
It was in 1970 on the Nanga Parbat mountain in Pakistan. On the way down from the summit, my brother Günther fell ill from altitude sickness and died under an avalanche. Thirty- five years later we found his body and I took home one of his shoes, which is now in a special room in MMM Firmian. This room tells stories about climbers who have died on mountains.
Why did you want to set up these museums?
I wanted to bring my heritage home – my heritage is not just my collection but also my knowledge about mountains.
After having the opportunity to go on more than 100 expeditions all over the world, involving thousands of climbs, and having met so many climbers in my lifetime, I feel I have a responsibility to bring these experiences together.
How do you tell the stories of mountaineering?
It is complicated to do so in a museum. Over the years, I have spoken to small audiences about my experiences. I have also written more than 50 books.
I also started giving big lectures to thousands of people. I can spend more than 300 pages writing about just one climb, but in a museum I might show one picture and write three sentences. It’s a different kind of storytelling.
Who visits your museums?
Tourists make up 99% of our visitors. South Tyrol, in the northern Italian Alps, is a beautiful area that many tourists visit in the summer. Only a few visitors are climbers or hikers.
What do you hope people will gain from visiting?
I want them to know what Reinhold Messner was the first mountaineer to climb the 14 highest mountains on Earth, all of them over 8,000 metres above sea level mountains are – dangerous, difficult – and I would like to give them knowledge about these experiences.
Is it difficult to build a museum so high up?
The highest of the six is Corones, which is between 7,000 and 8,000 feet up, and yes, it was difficult to build because it was so cold and there is lots of snow at that height.
Is it expensive to run?
Yes, because it is so high up: we need heating in the winter because it gets down to -30C at that height. It stays open through winter though, because the area is a popular ski resort so we get visitors at this time too.
Are there interactive displays?
There are, but there is no way for me to describe how cold it is on an 8,000-metre peak – I could create a room that was -40C, which people entered and left immediately, but it would not generate the same feeling of being on a mountain. The real cold you feel after days, not after one minute. Most people won’t have felt the wall of cold that you get on an 8,000-metre peak, so I try to recreate this situation with words, pictures and relics.
What’s next?
I am starting to do films about the relationship between humans and mountains. I was in Africa recently making one about Mount Kenya. I’m still climbing but not to the same level I did 20 or 30 years ago.
Project data
Cost UndisclosedMain funder Reinhold Messner
Architect Zaha Hadid Architects
Design and application development IKON SRL
Structural engineer IPM
Mechanical engineer and fire protection Jud & Partner
Electrical engineer Studio GM
Lighting Zumtobel
Concrete Kargruber und Stoll
Facade Pichler Stahlbau
Facade panels Bau & Technologie
Admission Adult 8€