Messner Mountain Museum with summit wine terrace

Reinhold Messner's mountain museum sits atop Kronplatz in a dramatic Zaha Hadid building embedded into the summit. After exploring exhibits on traditional alpinism, enjoy wine on the terrace with 360° views before skiing down the extensive, perfectly groomed slopes.

What to do there

3 things to do

1. 1 Descend INTO the Mountain That Changed Alpinism Forever History · Price: moderate

   Here's the thing nobody warns you about — you don't go UP to this museum. You descend INTO the mountain. Zaha Hadid carved the MMM Corones museum downward through the summit rock at Plan de Corones (2,275m), creating caverns and grottos that feel like the inside of a glacier. Then you emerge on the other side through an opening in the cliff face onto a 6-metre cantilevered terrace hanging over the Puster Valley. Reach via Kronplatz 2000 gondola from Riscone (Via Funivia 10, 2km from Brunico town center). Round-trip gondola ~€35 adults. The 240-degree panorama sweeps from the Zillertal Alps to the Marmolada glacier — the same mountains where Reinhold Messner completed 500 guided ascents before his 20th birthday. Buy tickets at the museum (€14 adults). Open: daily 10:00–16:00, last admission 15:30.

   Backup: If the gondola is closed (inter-season April 20 – May 16), visit MMM Ripa at Bruneck Castle instead — Messner's museum of mountain peoples, 15-minute walk uphill from Brunico town center, open May–November (closed Tuesdays), same admission price.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Toast With the Wine Named After These Mountains Wine · Price: low

   Order a glass of Gewürztraminer at Corones Hütte, directly adjacent to MMM Corones at the Kronplatz summit terrace. Here's what the sommelier won't tell you unless you ask: Gewürztraminer is named after Tramin (Termeno), a village 60km south of here on the Adige River. The grape didn't travel to Italy — Italy is where it's from. The Romans likely grew it here before the name 'Italy' even meant anything. Ask the server specifically for 'Cantina Tramin Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer' — Italy's most-awarded Gewürztraminer, harvested by hand at ultra-low yield, with aromas of rose, lychee, cinnamon and ginger that you smell from the other side of the table. You are drinking a wine named after the soil it grows in, while looking at the mountains that shaped the man whose museum you just walked through. Contact: +39 0474 530264.

   Backup: Any Alto Adige Gewürztraminer from the wine list works — the story is in the terroir, not the producer. The Corones Hütte also serves Lagrein (Bolzano's native red, deep violet, wild berry + coffee notes) if you want to explore the other indigenous variety.

   Log Memory
3. 3 Find the View Messner Climbed Toward as a Child Adventure · Free

   When you step onto the Zaha Hadid terrace — the 6-metre concrete arm hanging over thin air — orient yourself. To the southeast: the jagged silhouette of the Dolomites, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site for their geology. To the north: the Zillertal Alps, the Austrian border range. Due south, on a clear day: the unmistakable dome of the Marmolada, the highest peak in the Dolomites. These are the mountains Messner learned on — by age 13 he was climbing difficult routes here with his brother Günther; by 20 he'd led 500 ascents. Everything Everest, every 8,000m peak, every record — it all started in this exact panorama. Stand on the terrace with the Corones Hütte yak enclosure behind you (yes, there's a yak at 2,275m) and face southwest. The distant white dome is Marmolada. Point to it and think: Messner soloed Everest without oxygen in 1980.

   Backup: On days when the summit is socked in fog (common in shoulder seasons), the museum interior is still spectacular. The geological contrast between the limestone-toned exterior panels and the anthracite interior is itself the reveal — Hadid made the inside feel like descending into the mountain's own core. Weather doesn't cancel this.

   Log Memory

Insider tips

• Visit the museum first, then reward yourself with wine at the summit bar

• The building itself is the art - Zaha Hadid designed it to emerge from the mountain

• Ski down to Brunico for excellent wine bars in the medieval town center