Machado de Castro National Museum
The Machado de Castro National Museum is located in the Alta de Coimbra, one of the highest points of the hill, and its history spans over 2,000 years. The museum stands on an artificial platform formed by the cryptoporticus, constructed around the mid-1st century as the podium of the Forum of Aeminium (the Roman name for Coimbra). After a long period of abandonment, the site became home to the Bishops’ Palace in the 11th century. Documentation from 1083 references the existence of the Church of São João de Almedina, and, half a century later, a cloister was built, portions of which are still preserved inside the museum. In the 12th century, a new church was constructed to replace the earlier structure. However, by around 1416, the Bishops’ Palace is believed to have been abandoned, likely due to structural decay and seismic activity. At the end of the 16th century, new interventions were undertaken, including the addition of the loggia attributed to Filippo Terzi. This feature connected the two wings of the palace and created a balcony overlooking the city.
Within the two millennia of history, countless stories intersect and overlap. The archaeological site reveals multiple structures that have remained superimposed or intertwined over time, often leading to misunderstandings, uncertainties, or, at times, remarkable and beautiful revelations. The project embraces contemporary criticism’s lucid understanding of these layered sequences, where the interplay of “container” and “content” becomes a defining characteristic. This approach aims to address and correct the disruptions in scale and historical context caused by occasionally random juxtapositions. The new museum seeks to reestablish the spatial and social dimensions of the Roman Forum, emphasizing its potential as a vibrant public space for daily use and engagement. At the same time, it carefully accommodates the necessary constraints and requirements of a modern museum environment.
Two elemental volumes define a serene, flooded space illuminated by diffuse light, showcasing the temporal sequence of fragments from the 18th-century apse of the Tesoureiro Chapel. The gallery occupies the entirety of a trapezoidal volume, rising across four levels and culminating in a platform—the restaurant terrace—on which rests a rectangular volume of transparent and translucent glass. At night, this glass volume transforms into a lantern-like beacon of light. The lower volume adapts to the existing street layout. Its stone cladding is not imitative but resonates with the solid materiality of the surrounding buildings. Its positioning echoes the morphological and hierarchical settlement patterns originally tied to the cryptoporticus of the Roman Forum.
The experience of this space serves as a distillation of the surrounding city, connecting visitors to its essence through similarities, analogies, or contrasting perspectives. The result is a unified perception of beauty, harmonising the centuries-old history of the city with its present-day narrative.