LJUBLJANA
September - October 1996
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One of the more important elements of our cultural heritage is the Roman monuments with inscriptions, which together with other archaeological sources, including finds, walls, mosaics, frescoes, minute objects and coins provide direct and clear testimony to life in the ancient world. In terms of museum collections, Roman stones are not simple objects of display, since their weight and size hinder their presentation in permanent museum exhibitions and their keeping in museum repositories.
The space assigned for exhibiting Roman stones, featuring inscriptions as well as statuary, reliefs and works of Roman ornamental architecture, is called a lapidarium. In the past lapidaria were generally inappropriately designed and entirely out of step with the historic significance of stone monuments. In open-air lapidaria monuments fell into irretrievable disrepair, and in indoor museum lapidaria they were usually clad onto the walls of corridors. Opportunities for their study were in this way severely limited, for only the front of the stone, |
with the relief or inscription, was available to view, and the remainder of the monumental slab, featuring the fine details of stonemasonry and possible additional ornamentation, was kept inaccessible.
The first Roman "lapidarium" in Ljubljana was set up by Janez Gregor Dolničar, who had six inscribed Roman stones built into the cathedral (built between 1701 and 1706) and six built into the seminary (1708-1713) in the desire to preserve them for future generations. The Carniola Provincial Museum, now the National Museum of Slovenia, was founded in 1821, and the collection of Roman stones was one of the first and most important of the Museum's treasures. When in 1885 the new building of the National Museum was completed, the then director Karel Dežman - and after him subsequent custodians - in line with currently valid practices in keeping Roman monuments had these stones built into the interior walls of the corridors along the upper ground floor. Now after more than a hundred years the lapidarium of the National Museum is being rearranged and brought up to date. |
Modern lapidaria are the fruit of cooperation between archaeologists, epigraphologists and architects. The archaeological art historian determines the criteria for displaying statuary, reliefs and architectural elements, chiefly from the aspect of stylistic features; the epigraphologist categorises Roman stones by contextual criteria and by their historical importance; the architect's contribution is vital for the design and proper planning of the exhibition space, and in selecting all the technical components and furnishings of the space, in this way creating an up-to-date display which allows the study of Roman objects from all angles. Today we demand that an exhibited monument be accessible from all sides, protected against possible damage from natural phenomena, protected against damage from supporting structures, appropriately lit and explained properly to visitors in written form, as well as being completely safe.
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The lapidarium of the National Museum is divided into an interior and exterior space. The interior lapidarium will be arranged on the upper and lower ground floors of the building, while the exterior lapidarium will be located under a protective structure along with the existing display objects on the outside green area of the Museum. In terms of content, the exterior lapidarium will be set up as a collection of sarcophagi and a display of Roman architectural details, milestones and similar. The interior lapidarium will be arranged according to subject groupings. The exhibits for the interior lapidarium comprise gravestones with inscriptions, ancient sculptures and altars.
The system of cladding stones onto the wall, as employed in the first lapidarium of the National Museum, was in terms of use of exhibition space the most appropriate arrangement. This system provided for a satisfactory allocation of the narrow corridors as exhibition space for viewing Roman monuments, at the same time allowing for functional use as a corridor for other museum visitors and for employees. |
To date there have been several proposals drawn up for the more up-to-date arrangement of the lapidarium of ancient Emona in the National Museum, in which the proposers placed the Roman monuments quite freely around the interior of the exhibition and connecting corridors. The consequence of such an arrangement was the loss of viewing and access space in the exhibition area. In view of this experience, the protection of the existing space of exhibition hallways and the concomitant allocation of exhibition space represented the most important task in planning the interior exhibition. The resulting arrangement, which derives from the cladding system, is the only one which offers in equally valid form a modern display of the stones and multiple use of the appurtenant space in the building of the National Museum.
Following their extraction from the walls of the corridors, the Roman monuments are being returned to their original location, back onto the walls. But the slabs are now supported on bearing structures, in this way being suspended in the exhibition space and accessible from all sides. |
Minute scrutiny of the inscriptions and displays is made possible for each exhibit individually by specially arranged lighting, which allows for varying and adjustable design of the beams of light.
Other important guidelines being observed in designing the exhibition space are: precise planning and furnishing of the exhibition route of the lapidarium, a symbiosis of the architectural structures and the existing architectural fixtures with the new exhibition material, the renovation of certain architectural surfaces (restoring and connecting up the main central staircase of the building, renovation of the hundred-year-old flooring, arrangement of the lower ground floor hall as the central space of the lapidarium and so forth), the organisation of information points for computer access to the database, the arrangement of exterior open-air exhibition areas and similar. Dr. Marjeta Šašel Kos Mirko Brnič, B.Arch.Eng. |
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