Architects: Rafael Moneo     Photography: Michael Moran/OTTO     Construction Period:  1980-1986     Location:  Mérida, Spain

This project came about thanks to the presence of Dionisio Hernández Gil in the Directorate General of Fine Arts presided by Javier Tussell. It all started as a project for a retaining wall on Calle José Ramón Mélida, which was endangered when archeologists excavated a whole block and found what they had expected: aqueducts, peristyles of Roman houses, foundations of Renaissance courtyards, cisterns, sewage pipes, and even the remains of an early Christian church. The task at hand was to build on what had been built on, to build a museum on a site densely occupied by ruins.

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