Rome preserved in modern space

By creating a setting that feels like a plausible but reconstructed past, the building presents what critics have described as a “conceptual archaeology.”

Kim Bong-ryeol

The author is an architect and a former president of the Korea National University of Arts.

In the first century B.C., the Iberian Peninsula, once ruled by Carthage, became the Roman province of Hispania after Rome’s victory in the Punic Wars. A settlement established at the western edge for retired legionaries, Augusta Emerita, later grew into Mérida, the largest city in the region. Initially founded to support the development of nearby gold mines, the city prospered as a key hub along the inland trade route known as the Silver Way.

National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, Spain. [WIKIPEDIA]

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city declined under the rule of Germanic tribes and later Islamic Moors. Yet Mérida retained major remnants of Roman civilization, including aqueducts, bridges, temples, triumphal arches, an amphitheater and a theater, earning it the reputation of being “Rome within Spain.”

Excavations around the amphitheater uncovered extensive remains, including Roman roads, water systems, residential structures and finely crafted sculptures. To preserve these ruins and display the artifacts, authorities decided to construct a site museum directly above the archaeological remains.

The National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, opened in 1986, was designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo. Moneo has emphasized that architecture should begin by revealing the character of a place and by drawing on local building traditions, a concept often described as architectural “terroir.” For this project, the central challenge was to establish a dialogue between ancient Roman ruins and modern construction technology separated by two millennia.

The exhibition halls are defined by a series of stacked brick arches, while the structural frame is reinforced concrete concealed behind the masonry. The long, slender bricks are not Roman originals but specially manufactured modern materials. Although the space evokes the atmosphere of a Roman basilica, the gallery, formed by the repetition of ten parallel walls, creates a distinctly contemporary interior.

Natural light enters through high clerestory windows, giving the galleries a clarity that recalls an open-air archaeological site. In contrast, the basement level, where actual excavation remains are preserved, uses tightly arranged brick arches to create a deliberate tension between the ancient ruins and the modern structure.

The museum’s collection, which includes intricate mosaics and highly realistic sculptures, represents some of the finest Roman artifacts in Spain. Yet the architecture itself is equally significant. By creating a setting that feels like a plausible but reconstructed past, the building presents what critics have described as a “conceptual archaeology” — an architectural approach to accommodating historical time within a contemporary spatial experience.

This synthesis of history and modernity became one of Moneo’s most celebrated works and contributed to his receiving the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1996.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.