The special attention paid to culture in South Tyrol/Südtirol can also be seen in the many museums located throughout the region of Merano and Environs. Dedicated to a number of topics and diverse historical periods, they tell of historical events and social phenomena in a creative way and from different perspectives. An example of this eclectic approach is the Museum of Tourism, the Touriseum, located within the walls of Trauttmansdorff Castle in Merano/Meran. The museum depicts a curious journey through time across two centuries of the history of local tourism; another example is the South Tyrol Museum of History in Tyrol Castle. Once the seat of the Counts of Tyrol, today Tyrol Castle is evidence of the important role it played in medieval times, as the cradle of Tyrol as well as a political center.
Equally noteworthy are the six locations of the Messner Mountain Museum of the famous mountaineer Reinhold Messner. Castel Juval at the entrance to the Val Venosta/Vinschgau Valley is dedicated to the myth of the mountains, and exhibits an extensive collection of Tibetan relics and paintings of the great sacred mountains of the world.
In recent years, a number of small museums have also opened in the surroundings of Merano, such as the archeoParc Scchnalstal open-air museum, which deals with the Neolithic Age and the life of Oetzi, the famous ice mummy, whose remains can be seen in the Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano/Bozen. Other museums of interest are the Bunker Museum, the Jewish Museum located in the Merano synagogue, the Palais Mamming civic museum and the Women’s Museum.