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| Images courtesy of Messner Mountain Museum Corones |
A dramatic new museum opens today on top of Mount Kronplatz (7,500 feet) in Italy’s Dolomites. Designed by superstar architect Zaha Hadid, the Baghdad-born London-based Prizker Prize-winner, the Messner Mountain Museum Corones is the final of the six MMM museums launched by famous mountaineer Reinhold Messner. (He was the first climber to summit all 14 of the world’s mountains over 8,000 meters.)
MMM has a central museum in Sigmundskron and five branches devoted to individual themes; MMM was designed to educate visitors about man's encounter with mountains, the science of mountains and glaciers, the history of mountaineering and rock climbing, and the history and culture of mountain people.
Messner Mountain Museum Corones is accessed by cable car from the Kronplatz ski resort. As reported by The New York Times, the highlights are “the museum’s 240-degree views of the Alpine range from an exterior platform combined with Ms. Hadid’s innovative design, which cuts through the mountaintop with much of the museum tunneled underground.”
