[PLAN DE CORONES, ITALIAN DOLOMITES] — Here’s my overview of the Messner Mountain Museum Corones designed by Zaha Hadid. An amazing mountaineering museum by Reinhold Messner, the greatest mountaineer ever. Set on the Kronplatz (Plan de Corones) mountaintop it has amazing views of the Dolomites and Südtirol. You should go here.
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When I first saw pictures of this amazing museum, I told my friends “We have to go see this cool Messner Mountain Museum. It looks insane.”
Being the idiot I am, I thought there was just one Messner Museum. When we were hiking in the Dolomites I saw the name Messner Mountain Museum on the map and dragged my friends there. It looked nothing like the pictures I’d seen, it was more like inside a restored castle, not this space age looking picture above.
Confused, I googled it. There are actually six Messner Museums! We were at the wrong one. After dropping them off for their flight in Verona, I went back to search for THIS one.
Reinhold Messner was an absolute legend. He is considered the best mountaineer that ever lived. We all were taught about Sir Edmund Hillary as being the first to climb Mount Everest in 1953, but few realized the expedition totaled over 400 people, including 362 porters, 20 Sherpa guides, and 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) of baggage. And oxygen, which became the way people would climb mountains for the next decades.
By the 70s, Reinhold Messner saw what was going on and wanted to strip mountaineering back to magical feats of human endurance. How he had always climbed since he was a kid.
Reinhold Messner saw how mountaineering had changed over the decades, using things like supplemental oxygen and hoards of sherpas to support climbing expeditions. He was a big proponent of “alpine style” mountaineering, with very light equipment, no support and climbing without oxygen. To prove it, he went on to summit Everest and all the tallest peaks in the world. Many solo, but always without supplemental oxygen.
Reinhold Messner saw how mountaineering had changed over the decades, using things like supplemental oxygen and hoards of sherpas to support climbing expeditions.
He was a big proponent of “alpine style” mountaineering, with very light equipment, no support and climbing without oxygen.
To prove it, he went on to summit Everest and all the tallest peaks in the world. Many solo, but always without supplemental oxygen.
“Between 1960 and 1964, he led over 500 ascents, most of them in the Dolomites. In the 1960s he was one of the first and most enthusiastic supporters of alpine style mountaineering in the Himalayas, which consisted of climbing with very light equipment and a minimum of external help. Messner considered the usual expedition style (which he dubbed “siege tactics”) disrespectful toward nature and mountains.” (From Wikipedia, you gotta read it!)
I’d been a distant fan of Reinhold Messner since I was a kid, mesmerized by early pictures of him in a Sports Illustrated profile (I think), dangling from a cliff with one hand. I like to hike, but I never could do anything like that.
Growing up in this area of Südtirol, the in-between mountain ranges of Austrian and Italy, the Dolomites were Messner’s backyard and he sought to plant his flag in history by creating SIX (!) different mountain climbing museums across the Dolomites. This is important to know, as I found out by visiting one of his other museums thinking it was this one. They’re all different and have their own personalities.
The Messner Mountain Museum Corones (MMM Corones for short) was his final gift, dedicated to the traditional alpine style of mountaineering.
Working with the famed architect Zaha Hadid, known for bending all the rule of architecture to create amorphous, undulating shapes, Messner had the original idea of the story, the views, the perspectives, Zaha Hadid helped bring that vision to life.
At the time the museum was conceived, the Dolomites were known primarily as a skiing destination. Summer was considered “the low season”. Kronplatz was a mountaintop ski resort and wanted to create more of a year-round destination, so offered up the land for this amazing museum to attract people up its lifts during summer. The museum opened in 2015.
Since then, hiking in the summer season now rivals the ski season. And growing. I can’t believe the difference in awareness from my first ski tip in the early 80s, to multiple visits in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Now, everybody is heading to the Dolomites for hiking.
The museum blends into the mountain, purposefully. A barely-there footprint with just portals into the mountain guts below.
It’s a pretty small museum, so doesn’t take long to move through, the more time to run all around the top of Kronplatz and soak in the views.
Everything was made on top of the mountain, cast-in-place using local materials and concrete. Here’s a great description of the space — including a cool time-lapse of its excavation and construction from the Archello website.
Just as Hadid described, you walk down into the museum and it’s dark and cold and monochromatic, like being inside an iceberg. With different exhibits telling stories of mountaineering and the nearby mountains.
As you make your way through the three levels, you’re drawn like a moth to the bright lights of the portals, showing bright sun and stunning views of the green, white and blue landscape for miles.
Kronplatz in the summer is very family-oriented. Lifts up make it easy for everyone to get the amazing views, whether you’re a hiker or not.
There are paragliders soaring off the steep cliffs and tons of play areas for kids, including, inexplicably, a recreation of an Native American teepee recreation.
The views are amazing, in all directions.
Lufthansa has jokingly been called the national airline of Italy since most international flights from Northern Italy link through the wonderful Munich or Frankfurt hubs.
The best part of leaving the Dolomites, whether from Verona or Milano airports is flying low over the Dolomites and Tirol, the lakes of Como or Garda just below you. Make sure you book a window seat.
Here’s the MMM Corones website. And here’s a great article on the whole museum from ArchDaily. And the Zaha Hadid website. And in Architect magazine. Here’s the Kronplatz summer website for information on how to get there, where to park, lifts, etc.
Here’s the location of Kronplatz in Südtirol and the Italian Dolomites:
[BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA]– I’ve stayed in Buenos Aires three times…
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