What to see
The permanent exhibition is arranged chronologically, beginning with the Paleolithic era and concluding with the Early Middle Ages and the Carolingian period. While the museum displays prehistoric menhirs and artifacts from Roman and medieval settlements in the Adige Valley, Ötzi is the undisputed focus. Visitors can observe the mummified remains of the 45-year-old man, who stood 160 centimeters tall and weighed 50 kilograms in life. Today, his body weighs 13.75 kilograms and displays 61 tattoos consisting of 19 groups of black lines. Exhibited alongside him are his surviving garments and personal equipment, including an axe blade made of 99.7% pure copper and a longbow that was snapped during the initial recovery. A modern 3D facial reconstruction presents him with deep-set brown eyes, a beard, and a tired, furrowed face. Scientific displays reveal remarkable details about his health: he was lactose intolerant, suffered from cavities and intestinal whipworms, and had lungs blackened by the soot of open fires.
Visiting
A visit to the museum contextualizes the dramatic circumstances of Ötzi's discovery on September 19, 1991, by German tourists Helmut and Erika Simon. Found at an elevation of 3,210 meters in the Ötztal Alps near the Tisenjoch pass, the body was initially subjected to clumsy extraction attempts using ice axes and a pneumatic drill, which damaged the mummy's hip and destroyed elements of his clothing. A subsequent land survey determined that the body lay exactly 92.56 meters inside Italian territory, settling a border dispute rooted in the watershed definitions of the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Beyond the permanent displays detailing these events and his murder by an arrow to the left shoulder, the museum spaces also host temporary exhibitions, conferences, and conventions dedicated to the ongoing research surrounding the Iceman.
Our editors' tip
Pay close attention to the botanical and dietary exhibits detailing his final hours. The partially digested ibex meat, einkorn wheat, sloes, and intact hop-hornbeam pollen provide precise evidence that Ötzi ate his last meal in a mid-altitude conifer forest during the spring or early summer, less than two hours before he was killed.