PERMANENT EXHIBITION
GROUND FLOOR
Area 1
FROM MYSTERY TO CIVILIZATION
Mountains have always inspired fear. Inhabited by gods and demons, dragons and evil beings, dispensers of landslides, avalanches and floods, they were places of mystery to be explored and tamed. But mountain civilisation has gone beyond this: even where nature was at...
Area 2
COMMUNICATIONS
Mountains, and the Alps in particular, can act to unify the people living in the valleys or to separate the people of the opposing plains. The Romans already had to resolve the problem of crossing the Alps in order to connect up their empire. Today, railways and roads...
Area 3
TOURISM AND MOUNTAINEERING
Rocciamelone was climbed in 1358 by Bonifacio Rotario of Asti, but this was an isolated event. In actual fact, townspeople discovered the Alps only towards the end of the 18th century, driven by scientific reports and by the emotions of romantic spirits. After Haller,...
Area 4
THE ITALIAN ALPINE CLUB
When the Italian Alpine club was founded in the 19th century there was no division between mountaineering practice and scientific research. Quintino Sella, finance minister of the newly-fledged Kingdom of Italy, was equally at ease on rock faces or in geology...
FIRST FLOOR
Area 5
WINTER MOUNTANEERING
The most extreme boundary is winter mountaineering, which originated on Uja di Mondrone in December 1874 with the ascent of Castagneri, Martelli and Vaccarone. Climbing the mountains in the most unfavourable season meant breaking the final taboo of valley...
Area 6
SKIING AND WINTER SPORTS
Skiing did not originate as recreation, but as a means for moving over the snow for the populations of north Europe. Known and practised in the north for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, skiing arrived in the Alps only at the end of the 19th century, when...
Area 7
MOUNTAINS OUTSIDE EUROPE
The most truthful representation of the dimensions of the Himalayas is offered by the east face of Monte Rosa, which dominates the Macugnaga valley and the plain around Novara. But the day came when not even the Monte Rosa was enough to satisfy the mountaineers. With...
Area 8
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
For almost a thousand years, Alpine civilisation developed in a balanced equilibrium between nature and culture. Man drew resources from the environment without ever going beyond the limits of the resources themselves. With 19th- and 20th-century industrialisation,...
Area 9
PIACENZA COLLECTION
Mario Piacenza was born in 1884 at Pollone, near Biella, not far from Turin, into a family of industrialists dedicated to wool manufacturing from several generations. He carried out various activities in the field of mountaineering and was also the director of the...
Area 10
THE TURIN 2006 OLYMPIC MUSEUM
In 2006, on the occasion of the XX Winter Olympic Games and the IX Winter Paralympic Games, Turin and its valleys experienced a moment of great appreciation and were at the centre of international attention. The Museomontagna conserves the memory of the sports events...
Area 11
WALTER BONATTI
Walter Bonatti (1930–2011) is unique in the history of mountaineering. Certainly this goes for his amazing exploits: from the north face of the Grandes Jorasses scaled at just 19 years of age to his solitary winter ascent of the Matterhorn, along with the Grand...
SECOND FLOOR
Alpine Lookout – Rooftop Terrace
The Alpine Lookout and the Rooftop Terrace offer a unique location, with a breath-taking view of the city skyline and the 400 km alpine region, that is unlike any other in the world,