Messner Mountain Museum Corones

The Messner Mountain Museum Corones crowns the summit of Kronplatz near Bruneck in South Tyrol, at 2,275 metres between the Puster Valley and the Gader Valley. It is the sixth and most recent of the Messner Mountain Museums and is dedicated to traditional alpinism — the great walls, the legendary first ascents and the question of what drives a mountaineer to set out again and again.

Architecture Growing into the Rock

The museum was designed by Iraqi-British star architect Zaha Hadid — it was one of her final projects before her death in 2016. The building is largely embedded in the rock of the Kronplatz summit: 4,000 cubic metres of stone were blasted from the mountain to create the sweeping concrete forms. What appears from outside as a stark rocky outcrop opens up inside into flowing, cave-like spaces.

Three large window fronts break through the mountainside, each framing a specific panorama: south towards the Dolomites and the Marmolada, west towards the Ortler and east towards the Zillertal Alps. The mountain itself becomes the exhibit.

Exhibition and Experience

The permanent exhibition tells the story of alpinism through personal belongings, photographs, equipment and mementos from Reinhold Messner's expeditions. Regularly changing temporary exhibitions and art installations complement the collection. The tour through the underground spaces conveys a sense of being simultaneously in a cave and on a summit — the architecture and the views are as much part of the experience as the exhibits.

Getting There and Surroundings

MMM Corones is only accessible by cable car. Three gondola lifts reach the Kronplatz summit from different directions: from Bruneck/Reischach, from Olang and from St. Vigil in Enneberg. Right next to the museum stands LUMEN — Museum of Mountain Photography. MMM Corones is open in both winter and summer, following the cable car seasons.

MMM Corones is one of six museums in the Messner Mountain Museum network. The others are MMM Firmian at Sigmundskron Castle near Bolzano, MMM Juval at Schloss Juval in the Vinschgau, MMM Ripa at Bruneck Castle, MMM Ortles in Sulden and MMM Dolomites on Monte Rite.

Reinhold Messner had long searched for a location for a museum dedicated to alpinism before settling on Kronplatz — one of the best-known ski and hiking mountains in South Tyrol. Construction began in 2013 under the direction of Zaha Hadid Architects. Working at 2,275 metres posed considerable challenges: extreme weather, short building windows between ski seasons and the complex logistics of transporting all materials to the summit. MMM Corones was officially inaugurated on 23 July 2015. Construction costs came to roughly three million euros. With the opening, Messner completed a museum project that had grown over more than two decades.

The museum is accessible only by cable car.