At present museum architecture has acquired a great importance and the public authorities have an important role as they are responsible for the preservation, development and dissemination of culture. The latest undertakings that have been carried out all over the world express a growing interest for this type of amenity. Modern society has stripped these places of their passive context and has turned them into places for more than just preserving and collecting. They have now become centres that produce communication and spread culture. The role of architecture in these multipurpose buildings that house this culture and confront other cultural manifestations is complex but highly suggestive.
Among the different operations promoted by the Ministry of Culture in the last years with regard to museums, undoubtedly the construction of the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida stands out. The desire to create this museum coincided with the celebration of the bimillennium of the city in 1975. This decision was made public with Decree no. 2072 of July 10th of that same year. After that the State acquired a piece of land in front of the archaeological complex of the theatre and the amphitheatre, called "Solar de las Torres", well known for its archaeological findings and well situated because of its proximity to the Roman world. This important location would allow it to include both ruins and museum in a privileged union.
Before programming the construction, an excavation of the land was carried out. It brought to light an area, outside the walls of the city, encompassing areas of domestic architecture, a necropolis, a part of the Roman road and a part of the aqueduct called "San Lazaro".
Mr. Jose Menéndez Pidal carried out the first studies regarding the museum, architect in charge of the preservation of the monuments in Mérida between 1948 and 1978, after the attention given by Mr. Félix Hernández Giménez who preceded Messrs. José Ramón Mélida and Antonio Gómez Millán in this work.
With the death of Mr. Menéndez Pidal in 1978 the work on the museum was interrupted and the preliminary project that the Ministry of Culture had commissioned didn't materialize.
In the meantime, the excavations carried out in the "Solar de las Torres" had caused a difference in level between the streets surrounding the area and the lower level of the excavation of more than eight metres. This caused a serious state of instability in public roads and the Ministry had to commission the architect of the area, Eduardo Barceló, to build retaining walls around the whole area, which would guarantee the safety of vehicles and pedestrians.
Because of the high estimation of the cost of the project of retaining walls and since it was thought that the architecture of the building itself could help sustain the lateral thrust of the land, it was decided to commission the building of the museum without the usual comparison of bids, given the urgency created by the related events. In 1979 Rafael Moneo Vallés was commissioned with the project. He was professor of Composition at the School of Architecture of Barcelona, member of the Spanish Academy of History, Archaeology and Fine Arts in Rome and he had designed various exhibition rooms for private art galleries. He was also held in great prestige because of his work on the addition built onto Bankinter's main office in Madrid, Logroño Town Hall and a house he had designed on the edge of the river in San Sebastian.
The conditioning factors of the project were: the preservation "in situ" of the archaeological findings, the connection of the museum to the area of the theatre and amphitheatre and obviously the museum study carried out by Mr. José Álvarez y Saénz de Buruaga.
Moneo finished the plans at the end of 1980 and construction was begun in the middle of 1981. CUBIERTAS y M.Z.O.V. was the company that won the bid following the consolidating work carried out by the local contractor Pedro García Moya.
Shortly after work began, some town planning problems arose which were settled with the help of Antonio Vélez Sánchez, at that time alderman responsible for urban development in Mérida and with the modification introduced by Moneo in the north facade. Because of the necessary modification, he was able to put in the skylight that provided the far corners of the side naves with light.
From a figurative point of view, this is, without a doubt, one of Moneo's most traditional accomplishments. In it he creates an architectural language that reformulates the past in terms of techniques, meanings and contents without forgetting the present. The general outline of the design is made up of two buildings separated by the Roman road and connected by an imposing walkway, which hangs over the archaeological remains. One of the two buildings houses the museum and its warehouses, which Moneo in the preliminary plan calls the museum-archives. The other one holds restoration workshops, the library, an auditorium and administrative offices. The former is made up of a "type" of main nave and a series of parallel bays, which run perpendicular to the main space. The central light filters through the structure of the ceilings and the illumination designed through the vertical ornaments is controlled and blended by the diaphragm walls that form the nave at the south end. The open windows at the north end guarantee direct light.
The repetitive system of bays is superimposed on a lattice that makes up a hierarchy which a visitor can appreciate. The opening of arches in the parallel walls that form the nave's space have the same geometrical relationship as the Arch of Trajan. This helps a visitor visualize the order of dimensions that prevailed in Roman Mérida. This system of parallel walls is translated onto the southern front of the building (situated on calle J. Ramón Mélida) through the use of buttresses, which call to mind the geometry and strength of the aqueduct "Los Milagros".
In the second part of the building, the balanced composition of the front on calle J. Ramón Mélida stands out. The only element of composition there is an arch, which surrounds the main access of the museum and is topped by a white marble lintel and a niche. The door contains bronze bas-reliefs by Francisco López and the niche holds a replica of a Roman sculpture. The scale used in the rest of the building is more domestic since it is used for administrative purposes.
In summary we could say that the spatial relations inside the museum and the significance the architectural statuary acquires are fundamental if we want to understand the meaning of this architecture. In their architecture, the Romans adapted lineal Hellenistic forms for the outsides of their buildings, whereas on the inside they created pieces that were ever richer in spatial relations. While in Hellenistic architecture voluminous spaces were left outside in relation to different buildings or to their parts, in Roman architecture these spaces were brought inside. These, I feel, were the guidelines that Moneo used for his project and not only Roman construction techniques. To enumerate the possible sources or analogies used will only help to arrive at limited goals.
Construction of the museum was finished at the end of 1985 and until its inauguration, September 19th, 1986, the installation of its collections was carried out by a team of archaeologists from Mérida, coordinated by the museum's present day Director, José María Alvarez Martínez, with the valuable help of Antonio Pintiado in the restoration of the Roman mosaics. Moneo's plans, which included everything from the design of the pedestals and display cases up to the last chair in the building, were followed.
Others who worked with Moneo were the engineers, Jesús Jiménez and Alfonso García Pozuelo who helped in the calculation of the structure, the assistant architects, Francisco González Peiro and Rafael Luque who helped supervise the construction and Manuel Juan García, the head contractor.
Lastly, what makes the buildings of the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida more important is the possibility of their becoming the most important research centre of the Roman world in Spain as well as a place of meeting, communication and cultural dissemination for Extremadura