Iceman Ötzi in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

The South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, located in the historical centre, displays the ancient artefacts related to the region but it’s because of the Iceman Ötzi that it’s more popular. But what is Ötzi? It’s the body of a man that lived 5000 years ago and was found unintentionally in 1991 by two German hikers trekking in the Alps over 3000 meters of altitude. The body was buried under a thick layer of ice. While deviating from the official marked trail of the hike, the two Germans saw a head protruding from the melting snow and took photos of it, not expecting it would turn out to be such a sensational discovery. The next day, an Austrian team tried to recover the corpse of this 5000 years old man but given the difficult climatic conditions, it took them four days to take the body.
Later, it created a quarrel-like situation between Austria and Italy, until it was eventually demonstrated that the body was found in Italian territory, just 92 meters away from the Austrian border. That’s why today it’s displayed in Bolzano. You might get a little disappointed during your visit to find out that the Iceman can only be seen through a narrow window opened over the refrigerated cell where he is preserved, and after standing in a long queue. Objects of daily life like shoes, knife case, bow and arrows were also found next to the body, which are also displayed in the exhibition.