The book takes an in-depth look at the history of Santa Giulia, the Brescia museum that was enlarged and enriched by incorporating the Domus site and describes the initial chance finds followed by organised digs, the conservation difficulties and the final transformation of the site into a museum.
The Santa Giulia museum’s extraordinary success, and the approval that greeted its opening, led the critics to throw their usual caution when faced with an architectural project for a museum on an archaeological site to the winds, and this book explores and illustrates the careful planning and philosophy behind the project for the Domus dell’Ortaglia at Brescia. It takes an in-depth look at the history of Santa Giulia, the Brescia museum that was enlarged and enriched by incorporating the Domus site and describes the initial chance finds followed by organised digs, the conservation difficulties and the final transformation of the site into a museum. It examines the findings and the whole Roman residential district of Ortaglia and Viridarium reconstructed around the new building, illustrating the project in detail, its construction and its architecture. Despite, or perhaps due to, the essential simplicity which is the keynote of the design, it manages to blend the new space into its historic background, creating an original juxtaposition between archaeology, museum and architecture, indoor venue and open air site, a fascinating duet between past and present. From its rather forlorn semi-abandoned state, the Domus has been transformed into an archaeological exhibition space worthy of its intrinsic historical importance.