Bolzano, Bozen in German, is a small city with an unusual number of museums for its size, and four of its best-known cultural addresses lie within a short walk of each other on the edge of the old town: the archaeology museum where Ötzi the Iceman lies, the city museum, the Museion for contemporary art and the municipal theatre. This guide covers all four, plus Piazza Walther, the main square that ties them together, and shows how to link them in one walk.
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
The museum on Via Museo is built around one visitor: Ötzi, the Iceman. On 19 September 1991, two hikers from Nuremberg, Erika and Helmut Simon, found a body melting out of the ice at about 3,210 metres in the Ötztal Alps on the border between Italy and Austria. It turned out to be a man who died around 5,300 years ago, in the Copper Age, preserved with his clothes and equipment. Because the spot lies just on the Italian side, he came to Bolzano, and the museum has shown him since 1998.
Ötzi lies in a cold cell kept at about minus 6 degrees and high humidity, and you see him through a small window. In 2001 an X-ray revealed a flint arrowhead in his left shoulder, so the oldest known 'cold case' is, most likely, a murder. The museum is one of the stops on our Bolzano scavenger hunt.
- The mummy itself, seen through the viewing window of its cooling chamber.
- His copper axe, unfinished longbow, quiver and arrows, and the grass and leather clothing.
- A life-size reconstruction of Ötzi, showing how he may have looked.
Museo Civico (Bolzano City Museum)
Diagonally across the street stands the city museum, the oldest museum in South Tyrol. The building with its tall tower was put up in 1905 by the local museum association, on the foundations of a medieval property. The tower was pulled down in the Fascist period and rebuilt only in the early 1990s. The museum then closed for a long renovation from 2003 to 2011.
Its collections cover archaeology, art from the Middle Ages onwards and the folk culture of Tyrol, built on gifts from old Bolzano societies and schools and on later purchases. Today the tower and part of the collections are open again, and the museum is a stop on the scavenger hunt.
- The tower, which gives one of the best views over the roofs of the old town.
- Traditional Tyrolean costumes and everyday objects from the valleys around Bolzano.
- Medieval and later art from Bolzano and the surrounding region.
Museion
A few minutes away, on the bank of the Talvera river, the Museion is Bolzano's museum of modern and contemporary art. The collection was started in 1985; the present building, a large glass and metal cube designed by the Berlin firm KSV Krüger Schuberth Vandreike, opened in 2008. At night its façade towards the city becomes a huge screen for video works, and two footbridges link the museum to the meadows and the other side of the river.
The Museion has made headlines more than once. In 2008 a crucified frog by the German artist Martin Kippenberger caused a storm of protest, and in 2015 an installation of empty bottles and party rubbish was thrown away by cleaners who thought it was real mess. The Museion is one of the scavenger hunt stops.
- The media façade after dark, best seen from the riverside path.
- The footbridges over the Talvera, with views of the mountains around the city.
- The changing exhibitions, which mix the museum's own collection with international loans.
Piazza Walther
Bolzano's main square was laid out in 1808, when the city belonged to Bavaria, and was first named after the Bavarian king Maximilian Joseph. Today it is named after Walther von der Vogelweide, the most famous German-language poet of the Middle Ages, whose white marble statue by Heinrich Natter was unveiled in 1889. In 1935 the Fascist authorities moved the statue to a park on the edge of town; it returned to the square only in 1981. Piazza Walther is a stop on the scavenger hunt, and in Advent it holds Bolzano's Christmas market.
- The statue of Walther, and behind it the tiled roof and spire of the cathedral, another stop on the route.
Teatro Comunale (Municipal Theatre)
Bolzano's municipal theatre on Piazza Verdi was designed by the Milanese architect Marco Zanuso and inaugurated on 9 September 1999. Besides the main hall it has a smaller studio theatre, rehearsal rooms and a dance studio, and it is the home of both the Italian-language Teatro Stabile di Bolzano and the German-language Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen, a good picture of a city where both languages are part of daily life. It is not a scavenger hunt stop, but it lies a short walk from Piazza Walther, which is.
- The modern building on Piazza Verdi, a clear contrast to the medieval old town nearby.
- The programme posters, often in both Italian and German.
How to see them in one walk
Start at Piazza Walther, the main square, and walk through the arcaded Via dei Portici and Piazza delle Erbe, with its fruit market, to Via Museo. Visit the archaeology museum and Ötzi first, then cross to the Museo Civico. From there, continue west to the Talvera river and the Museion, and cross one of its footbridges if you want a view back over the city. Finish by walking back through the old town to Piazza Verdi and the municipal theatre, ideally in the evening, when there may be a performance.
See Bolzano with World City Trail
Our Bolzano scavenger hunt turns the city into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the cathedral and Piazza Walther to the Dominican church, and four of the places in this guide are among them: Piazza Walther, the archaeology museum, the Museo Civico and the Museion.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Bolzano.
Play the Bolzano scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Bolzano →
Play the outdoor escape game in Bolzano →
Facts checked in October 2026.