Have you heard of the ice man? Are you familiar with the world-renowned mummy from our ancestry? Do you know about how the glaciers have moved over the last million years? Can you imagine going back in time?
Why not take a little trip to Bolzano and visit the Ötzi Museum. The museum is located in Bolzano’s Museumstraße, amidst the little city centre alleyways and just before you get to the wonderful Talvera Park. It’s home to allegedly the oldest man in the world, Ötzi himself.
Find out all about the ice man in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. This museum is state of the art and highly interactive in terms of technology, offering numerous workshops and guided tours of the historic building. The exhibition itself is set over several floors that take you on a journey through space, time and nature.
This museum gives you a glimpse into the past, presenting our journey through time in a well-thought-out manner, exploring the boundaries of (human) nature, events that have taken place in the world of the mountains and personal insights into the story of Ötzi, in the context of this recent archaeological find.
Find out about all the interesting and curious facts relating to this famous mummy, his habits, the warmth of his clothing and all the essentials and necessities for survival at that time.
The man who journeyed between Italy and Austria is thought to be one of the first to cross the border in incredibly cold conditions and at extreme heights. In a mountainous region like South Tyrol, not only does this represent a prehistoric discovery, leading us to research our physical limitations, but it also raises political issues, since the place this man was found is just a few hundred metres from the Austrian border.
The Ötzi Museum portrays the mountain world in vivid and highly technical ways, so that events in the mountains at that time are as lifelike as possible for those visiting the exhibition. It’s also interesting to think about what might have brought the ice man to this realm and how he determined his route. Give free reign to your imagination and gain many fascinating insights into the mountainous world during your tour.
It’s also very interesting to learn about the process of finding the man from the Ötztal Alps when you visit the Ötzi Museum. Try to understand the impact of such extreme conditions, about 3,000 metres high up in the mountains, when archaeologists discovered a preserved mummy in a specially protective environment. You can discover everything when you visit the Bolzano Archaeological Museum.
Learn about the 5000-year-old story of the incredible ancestor of our time. This story has been preserved and protected in the Ötzi Museum. You can also experience almost first-hand how times have changed as the museum takes you on a journey through the centuries. Based on the archaeological finds and the reconstruction of the events, it’s possible to visualise the changes that our landscape has undergone during the last millennia. From the icy coldness of the glaciers to global warming, an Ötzi Museum tour is extremely exciting and vividly presented. You’ll be amazed at this former glacial area, no longer in existence, as you learn about what we can do to restore our nature.
This journey back in time not only shows how Mother Earth has transformed but also tries to bring you closer to how we used to live. What's the significance of such icy living conditions? How did people back then keep themselves warm? Were they sociable? Did they have traditions and customs? How did Ötzi get his tattoos? Why did he die by being shot in the back by an arrow?
Peep through a window into the past and uncover the fascinating world of our previous history and the story of the ice man.
You can easily reach the Ötzi Museum from our chalet with the Renon cable car, which connects you to Bolzano in 12 minutes every 4 minutes. From the Bolzano valley station, it is then a leisurely 10-minute walk.
