BOLZANO. After 25, the age of breakthroughs, it happens that you want to go and live alone. Away, in a house of his own. It is happening to Ötzi, who is actually a little older, regarding five thousand years old, and when he died, on the Giogo di Tisa, he barely reached 46 and was already traveling around the world. But it’s been 25 years that they’ve made him stay in a house that doesn’t really feel like him, having been the headquarters of the Bank of Italy and having found it, in all this time, quite cramped.
And so it is that, precisely in the first jubilee, a quarter of a century, of his stay in via Museo and the inauguration of the headquarters, everyone is in a hurry to have him moved. Announcing his departure: «We are happy to have already identified the new headquarters of the iceman», he smiled Elisabeth Vallazza, the director of the Archaeological Museum, yesterday (March 28) during the birthday party for the 25th anniversary in the current location, «and which reveals great potential: suitable spaces for welcoming visitors and for exhibitions». AND l’ex Enel, già villa Gasteigernestled between the Druso bridge and the prison, is in the “viewfinder” of Arno Kompatscher. «We are ready», confirmed the president, «since the decision has been made. But be patient: it won’t be tomorrow. So let’s take advantage of this time to continue with the initiatives».
But it will probably be the day following tomorrow. And this makes us understand how much his territory and politics have invested in the Iceman, given that they are willing to spend almost one hundred million to finally give him a life as an adult. There are all the reasons: over 6 million visitors, three hundred thousand last year and maybe something more this year. It has been there since March 23, 1998, Ötzi. And when it arrived, following a long dispute with the discoverers (two Germanic tourists, Erika and Helmuth Simon), the immediate and sure attribution of the body by Reinhold Messner (not a soldier of the first war, but a man of the copper age) , the frictions with the Tyrolean neighbors and the certainty that it was on this side of the border, the mummy arrived escorted by the police.
Like a load of gold. And that man of other times turned out to be gold, in essence, because his presence constituted an uncommon tourist and economic engine. And that it will continue to be exploited. «Let’s imagine a strategic place, near the station, next to the Eurac and the auditorium», explained Kompatscher, «where the Similaun man will be the driving force for an entire urban quadrant, from via Druso to via Museo, to the Talvera ».
There was also the first director of the museum, yesterday on the third floor, between screens and suffused lights. “When she came she,” like this Angelica Fleckinger, today head of the provincial museums, “we did not imagine that the mummy would lead us to continually break new records”. Thanks also to the redevelopment of the old Liberty headquarters.
“We think this scheme implemented here,” they noted Silvano Tacus and Franco Didonè, the architects of the reconstruction«then gave way to the new image of many other museums in Bolzano and in South Tyrol».
In short, also architecturally, Ötzi has opened new paths. Then science. In 2011, twenty years following the discovery of the mummy, new archaeological and technical knowledge made it possible to broaden the spectrum of studies on this type of find by initiating collaborations with research institutions from all over the world. Between reconstructions of Ötzi assembled by paleo-artists and continuous updates. Today, the museum is not only Iceman: it preserves original finds from the Copper Age, the most recent scientific discoveries on the mummy and also on mummies in general, as well as objects coming directly from glacial archaeology.
Yesterday the third floor of the archaeological museum was crowded with old and new collaborators, the protagonists of the creation of the museum, such as the councilors Bruno Hosp and Florian Mussner and the technicians who have supported the most famous mummy of the third millennium in these 25 years.
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