“Men think they are climbing mountains. There he is walking on a glacier. Slowly, with your head down. Glances over me, unaware of anything. The face is yellow, the lips are swollen, cracked. It seems that only part of him has returned. This most powerful person is at the limit, worked out to the very soul. It's a pity to look at him. He is exhausted to such an extent that only victory could give him the strength to return alive (from the diary entries of Nena, Messner's American friend, who accompanied him during the ascent to Mount Everest). On that day, one of the greatest climbers in the world, a native of South Tyrol, Reinhold Messner, all alone, without an oxygen mask, with the simplest equipment, conquered this mountain.
Studying various publications and other materials about Messner, you catch yourself thinking that this person has incredible charisma, you can listen to and read him endlessly: here he is already at an age with a smile, carelessly brushing his hair from his face, notices in the video that the mountains need to be understood not with the mind, but with the heart. And here he starred in a documentary, as always cheerful and smiling, but suddenly, when asked by a journalist about his brother, who died in one of the most difficult expeditions, he covers his face with his hands and does not even cry - howls.
Messner began mountaineering at the age of 5, and then, as he himself admits, for him, who was born in 1944 in a small South Tyrolean village surrounded by majestic mountains and with a very small visible strip of sky, an endless horizon suddenly opened up. He received his degree in architecture from the University of Padua, but fully devoted himself to the mountains, without which he still cannot imagine his life. Today, as well as many years ago, Messner is engaged in the popularization of mountaineering among young people, travels around the world with lectures, publishes articles and writes books. In his homeland, he, together with the authorities of the province of South Tyrol, opened 6 museums, each of which is dedicated to a specific topic related to mountaineering.
The history of their creation began with the purchase of the Yuval castle by Reinhold Messner for a completely ridiculous, according to him, amount of 30 thousand dollars. The castle required restoration, and Messner invested all his then savings in it in order to settle there with his wife and children. When the children grew up and needed to drive them to school, Messner's wife suggested that he move to the city, and use Yuval for recreation, as a summer residence. Then Messner decided to turn the castle into a public museum dedicated to the theme of mountains as a place of mystery and spirituality. Today, along with other exhibits, at certain times of the year, visitors can see here materials on the mountains of Kailash, Fuji, Ayers Rock, marvel at the precious statues of Buddha and a giant prayer wheel. Messner admits that he was very pleasantly surprised when, in the very first year of the operation of the Yuval castle as a museum, it not only paid off, but also made a profit.
The costs of the creation of the other five museums were divided between Messner and the province of South Tyrol on the condition that he could provide expositions there for 30 years without additional subsidies from the authorities, but it seems that the great climber has nothing to worry about: after all, six of his museums belong among the most visited attractions in Südtirol.
When a famous person develops a bright, ambitious project, as a rule, a wave of criticism falls on him and his brainchild. The local, South Tyrolean population accused Messner of creating mausoleums named after themselves and christened museums Disneyland, spoiling the cultural landscape of Südtirol. Such a negative reaction both at home and in the international press clearly worries the climber, and in one of his books he even devotes several pages to criticism, however, answering it very briefly: “What can I say to this? Did I hope for understanding? Yes and no."
The architect of the last of six museums - a building at an altitude of 2,275 meters above sea level, on the top of Mount Kronplatz, whose collection is dedicated to more than 250 years of mountaineering history, her entire professional career was criticized no less than Messner, but, nevertheless, she entered the history of world architecture and changed it forever. Zaha Hadid, the only foreign designer of the Messner Museum, won a closed competition organized by the great climber in cooperation with the province of South Tyrol and created a building that will take your breath away.
You can climb to the foot of the Kronplatz mountain on foot in about two hours, or get there by car, and then walk from the parking lot to the ski lift that takes you to the top of the mountain - to the museum. Most come here in winter for downhill skiing or in summer for mountain biking and race walking, and every tourist must visit the museum. The main sponsor of the construction was Skirama, which owns the local ski infrastructure, but Messner is still responsible for all the day-to-day running costs of the museum. At Zaha Hadid's bureau, the challenging design area was received with great enthusiasm, and Patrick Schumacher even emphasized in one of his interviews: “We like working in extreme conditions. Such opportunities are rare. In the process of designing the museum, the architects started from the image of South Tyrolean castles dominating the surrounding landscape, while developing the theme of theatricality and drama in the interior, most of which is located underground.
In the project of the museum on Mount Kronplatz, Zaha Hadid's bureau, as always in their practice, did not follow the traditional norms of proportion and symmetry - therefore, at first, as he himself admits, Messner even worried about placing exhibits on such uneven surfaces. The visitor, passing through the raw concrete entrance, immediately finds himself like a rough road that crosses the entire building and leads to balconies with panoramic views of the mountains. On the walls here and there are written phrases related to mountaineering, and in three languages: German, Italian and Ladin. As you know, in South Tyrol there are two official languages, Italian and German, but part of the population continues to speak Ladin, however, it is quite understandable for people who know Italian. In one of his books, Messner, describing his overnight stay on Everest, says: “I turn around. I am convinced that I am alone. Now I speak Italian, although my native language is German. " When asked about the glory of which country he conquers the mountains, the climber replies: "I am my homeland, and my banner is a handkerchief."
Console balconies and panoramic windows are the greatest emotional experience in the museum, which architects, as filmmakers, have planned in the smallest detail so that visitors can get a feel for what climbers feel at the top of the mountain. All the glass from the outside is mirrored, and if you go out onto the balcony, you will see mountain reflections and an endless sky in the windows. Each of the three balconies overlooks peaks important to Reinhold Messner and associated with his childhood and personal achievements. The interior has a lot of stunningly beautiful and thoughtful elements "from Hadid" with the detailing of the seams, the completion of the railings, and the processing of the steps characteristic of its buildings.
Messner's plans were to combine the grand opening of the museum with his 70th birthday, but construction work continued for another year after the anniversary. The delay was due to difficult conditions: winter temperatures, which dropped to -20 degrees Celsius, the lack of an asphalt road to the top, strong winds, and so on. It was built like this: first, they removed a layer of stones and earth, without crashing into the rock, then they cast the building from concrete in place, and then strengthened it on all sides with previously excavated soil. As a result, the temperature in the museum always remains at the same level, and visually it perfectly fits into the environment, resembling the outline of a mountain from the side with streams of water flowing down it. Many architectural media, however, compare the building with a crown, emphasizing the connection between the shape and the name of the peak on which it is located - Kronplatz.
Each of Messner's museums is best seen in person - and not even once, but many times. The outstanding climber himself says that several people call him every day with a proposal to build another museum, but he always refuses, as he put an end to his architectural history of mountaineering, showing in the last building that mountains can be calm, non-aggressive and deep thought. Messner, describing the museum at the top of the Kronplatz, quotes William Blake: “Great things happen when man and mountains meet. They won't happen in the bustle of the street."
Messner's friend Nena in her diary continued describing what happened to him after the conquest of Everest: “When we come to the tent and all the dangers are behind, Reinhold falls again. Yes, he was at the top, and people will again say that he conquered the most powerful mountain on earth. Yes, he has achieved success, achieved his goal - but the mountain has achieved even greater success. She took her price from this person."
