Bolzano: 3-Hour the Historical Center & the Iceman

This guided tour starts in Walther Square. The Piazza Walther was completed in 1808 by the order of King Massimiliano di Baviera and was initially named after him. In 1901, it was dedicated to Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230), one of the great German poets and storytellers of the Middle Ages. In the same square, you will admire the Cathedral of Bolzano, a late Medieval and a Romanesque Basilica (1180). After a century, the site has opened to a new imposing construction completed around 1420. The bell tower, with an open fretwork spire in sandstone, which stands 65 meters tall, was built by the Suevian architect, Hans Lutz von Schusseried, between 1501 and 1519.

The tour will continue to Vicolo della Pesa, one of the oldest places in Bolzano once hosting the castle of the Prince-Bishops of Trento (destroyed in 1277 by Mainardo II di Tyrolo) and the Church of Sant’Andrea (destroyed in 1785). One of the most picturesque buildings of the city is situated to the north of this square- la Casa della Pesa (1634), a public weigh house until 1780. See Via and Piazza della Mostra with the prestigious palaces of Campofranco and the Portici (Arcades), once the heart of the medieval village, they have kept their characteristics to date with their seamless continuity of shops, some typical and traditional, others chic and modern. You will also see Piazza del Municipio (Town Hall Square), via Bottai (Coopers Street), via Joseph Streiter, Franciscan Church, via Argentieri and Piazza delle Erbe to continue to the Dominican Church. The Dominican friars settled in Bolzano in 1272 and had their church built with one nave only inside a large convent comprising different chapels, some of them destroyed, and a magnificent cloister. The jewel of the entire complex is Cappella di San Giovanni, a long and narrow side chapel with the most magnificent fresco cycle of the Giotto School in the province.

The permanent exhibition at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology is dedicated entirely to Ötzi, the Iceman, a mummy from the Copper Age, 5300-years-old. It is housed on three floors of the museum and displays everything of interest about the world’s most famous glacier mummy. The exhibition covers the circumstances surrounding Ötzi’s accidental discovery on 19 September 1991, the international media response, the original finds themselves (the mummy together with his clothing and equipment), daily life in the Copper Age and multidisciplinary research carried out on the find of the century. A highlight of the exhibition is the life-like reconstruction of the Iceman, which vividly portrays how the Iceman may have looked during his lifetime.