Messner Mountain Museum Kronplatz

The Dolomites


Mountaineer Reinhold Messner's sixth and final mountain museum also sadly happened to be one of the final projects of star architect Zaha Hadid before her untimely death in 2016. Located at 2275m – access is via the Kronplatz cable car – its buried concrete forms are both architecturally thrilling and spectacularly sited. Inside there's a touching, inspiring collection of objects that accompanied some of the world's most accomplished mountaineers on legendary ascents, displayed in descending galleries and spliced with views out to the peaks and valleys beyond.

There are also a rather great number of works from Messner's collection of Alpine paintings, from both historical and contemporary artists and ranging from the sublime to the gently kitsch. It's worth making the trip up here to see it, even if you're not skiing or hiking, and even if you're not into climbing yourself. Check for exact opening dates – these correspond with the running of the cable car.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby The Dolomites attractions

1. LUMEN Museum of Mountain Photography

0.23 MILES

Anyone passionate about the mountains should make a beeline for this captivating museum, opened in 2018 at the summit of Kronplatz ski resort. The…

2. Kriegerfriedhof

3.95 MILES

This pristinely maintained cemetery set in a forest on Kühbergl just behind the town has graves of soldiers from the nearby WWI front as well as a section…

3. Messner Mountain Museum Ripa

4.02 MILES

Brunico's 13th-century hilltop castle is the evocative setting for mountaineer Reinhold Messner's fifth 'Mountain Museum'. Opened in 2011, it documents…

4. Museo Ladin

4.87 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…

5. Chiesetta di San Giovanni in Ranui

13.02 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 …

6. Dom

14.17 MILES

The lofty two-spired baroque cathedral you see today was built on top of the AD 980 Gothic-Romanesque original in 1745. While the bishop decamped to…

7. Diözesanmuseum

14.28 MILES

This museum is far more interesting than most of its ilk, and its magnificent palazzo (mansion) home testament to Bressanone's once-important religious…

8. Museum de Gherdëina

17.45 MILES

Ortisei's folky Museum de Gherdëina has a particularly exquisite collection of wooden toys and sculptures, along with other artefacts and exhibits related…