Museum of the Ara Pacis

“I would prefer to blow up the Ara Pacis by Richard Meier on the day of its grand opening. I am by no means the only one who thinks this, but there are quite a few of us. Many people have approached me to form an 'anti-Meier committee.'” These words were spoken on April 8, 2006, by former Deputy Minister of Culture of Italy, Vittorio Sgarbi. The idea of the member of the conservative party of Silvio Berlusconi was so well received by 40 members of the far-right party Alleanza Nazionale, that they came on the day of the grand opening of the building with flags to express their disapproval. People like them are responsible for the fact that the construction of the museum took a long decade. The greatest credit for bringing the entire project to completion goes to Walter Veltroni, the current mayor of Rome, who was elected to his position in 2001. The Ara Pacis Museum thus became the first public building constructed in the center of Rome in over fifty years. It was more of a political act than an architectural event.
The very story of Ara Pacis is infused with politics. The altar was commissioned by the Roman Senate in 13 B.C. and inaugurated in 9 B.C. in honor of Emperor Augustus for the “pacification” of the Gauls with the Spaniards. One of the friezes features the figure of the emperor in a procession with priests, loyal aides, and family members. Other reliefs identify him with the heroic Aeneas and Romulus with Remus, the mythical founders of the city. Further carved images report on how the Romans of that time enjoyed peace and prosperity under Augustus's leadership. The altar was originally located on the Campus Martius (or Field of Mars) and was likely destroyed after the Barbarians conquered Rome. At the beginning of the last century, remnants of the altar were traced in museums in Florence, Rome, the Louvre in Paris, and others were found during archaeological excavations. In the late 1930s, Mussolini ordered the altar to be reconstructed primarily for political reasons and exhibited in a pavilion designed on the banks of the Tiber River in 1938 by architect Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo. Mussolini’s intent was clear: he saw himself as the new Emperor Augustus. He had the inscription "Res Gestae Divi Augusti" (Acts of the Divine Augustus) carved into the base of Morpurgo's pavilion. In 2001, this fascist building was demolished, and the only thing that remained preserved was this travertine wall with the inscription.
Thanks to the new pavilion, the altar may have emerged from the shadow of fascism, but not from the political games. Critics accuse the government as the client of failing to hold a public architectural competition for the construction. Instead of a calm path, they chose pomp and monumentality. The museum thus lies on the western edge of Piazza Augusto Imperatore near the Tiber River close to the Ponte Cavour bridge. The purity and scale of the construction draw from ancient Roman constructions. The new building consists of glass, steel, concrete, and travertine. The façade made of roughly treated gray travertine from a local quarry contrasts well with the fine stonework on the altar. The dominant element of Meier's museum is a giant glass wall 13.5 meters high and 50 meters long. From the entrance hall, which is 8.5 meters high, defined by four slender concrete columns with marble plaster surfaces, the path leads to the main hall, in the center of which the Ara Pacis is exhibited. The subdued light in the entrance space contrasts with the bright light flooding the main hall. Although the primary task of the structure is to protect the ancient altar, the building program also accounted for the creation of additional exhibition spaces covering 700 m² and a digital library thematically dedicated to the period of Emperor Augustus. On the outdoor terrace located above the lecture room for 300 listeners, there is a café with a bar offering a view eastwards of Augustus's mausoleum or the Tiber to the west.
The altar remained standing resolutely in its place during the demolition of the fascist pavilion and the subsequent construction of Meier's museum. However, during the construction work, it was carefully wrapped and was revealed again after a long time on September 22, 2005, the birthday of Emperor Augustus. The entire building was then opened on April 21, 2006, on the purely hypothetical day of Rome's 2759th birthday.