Over five millenniums ago a man climbed up into the Oetztal Alps high above the Schnals Valley and met a grisly death (a flint arrow tip is lodged in his left shoulder). His body was quickly devoured and embalmed by the eternal ice, to be released in an excellent state of preservation together with his clothes and belongings in September 1991. Dubbed ‘Oetzi’, he provides unprecedented insight into life in the Bronze Age and can be seen in the context of a dedicated exhibition in the new Archaeological Museum. The Natural Science Museum recounts the birth of the Dolomites, how they emerged from a stagnant sea, soon to become objects of unrivalled natural beauty rising above flowery Alpine meadows. Other museums include the Municipal Museum which focuses on Bolzano’s customs and traditions, its history as an agricultural and trading town and its development, while the Mercantile Museum documents the economic development of the town and its wealthy burgher class, its fairs and importance as a mediator or ‘mercantile bridge’ between northern Europe and Italy. Modern art enthusiasts will in their element at the Museion, the museum of contemporary art which draws exhibits from both sides of the Alps, while the very latest addition to Bolzano’s museum portfolio brings man and mountain together in the project by the world-famous mountaineer, the conqueror of the ‘eight-thousanders’ (8,000 metre-high summits), Reinhold Messner. His Messner Mountain Museum (MMM) accommodated in Sigmudskron Castle bears the fortress’s ancient name, ‘Firmian’ and focuses on the traditions, customs, religions and ways of life of mountain folk the world over. Finally there is the ‘small but beautiful’ Schools Museum which brings to life the cultural development of South Tyrol since 1800 and the advent of the parallel education system of Italian and German schools.