The Historical Museum of Alpines is located in an impressive natural scenery, on the cliff of Doss Trento (or "Verruca") that overlooks the city and housed important prehistoric settlements. With the Emperor Augustus, and particularly during the barbarian invasions, it had the function of fortified camp of the people that settled on the edges of the plain Adige. On the highest part of the Doss there was a Church . During the Austrian dominion, the "Verruca" was part of the fortified city of Trento and was adapted to become a military magazine. In July 1916 the President of the Council of Ministers, Paolo Borselli, proposed to the Parliament the construction of a monument to Cesare Battisti in Trento. In 1921 the draft law was approved and in 1935 the Mausoleum, designed by the architect Ettore Fagioli, was finished. Built in Trentino stone, the monument is composed of three parts: the base (5 metres high), the columns (12 metres high) and the trabeation (3 metres high); in the centre there is the altar in porphyry of Paneveggio and down the tomb and the bust of the Hero, created by the trentino sculptor Fozzer. The Trentina Legion, an Association of trentini volunteers in the war 1915-1918, had the idea to situate a national Museum of the Alpines Corps next to the Mausoleum. The Government accepted the proposal in 1938.
In 1940 some eminent architects presented a project; it considered the construction on the "Verruca" of a grand monumental complex of long-lasting works that remembered the roman "castrum", in order to celebrate the actions of the mountain troops of Italy: the "Alpine Acropolis". Unfortunately, it could not be realized in the difficult years after the war because it was expensive; as consequence it was decided to build only the Museum as first nucleus of the "Alpine Acropolis" complex, thanks to the generous financial contribution by the regional authorities and to the Trento Municipality that ceded the former Austrian magazine. On 15th March 1958, in occasion of the assembly of the National Alpines Association in Trento, the building was officially inaugurated.