2020 | Building Peace through Heritage
the internet site of the Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historiques et des Sites “ il ne s ’ agit pas d ’ un musée mais de la présentation des ruines ” ( this is not a museum but a presentation of the ruins ), the museum circuit , which is divided in various stages , as well as drawing on traditional teaching equipment such as dioramas , maquettes ( models ) reproducing the crypt and the parvis , explanatory positions set in correspondence to each phase and conceived to facilitate the reading of archaeological emergencies , makes an intelligent and calibrated use of architectural measures and display systems which , being conceived as an integral part of the museum display , demarcate the urban routes or monuments which are no longer in existence ( in addition to the cited rue Neuve Notre-Dame , there are also the churches of Sainte Geneviève des Ardents and Saint Etienne and the chapel of l ’ Hȏtel-Dieu ). These architectural measures and display systems , such as change of level and texture , paving of different dimensions and format , use of large stone slabs of differing colours , are used to enable the less expert visitor to experience an easier and more conscious decoding of the museum ’ s message .
Proof of this is that the Crypt , which is developed on a total area of 2,200 sq metres of which 1,800 sq metres are dedicated to the presentation of the archaeological remains and has hosted temporary exhibitions for many years dedicated to various themes connected to history , to architecture and town planning in the ancient and medieval periods in the French capital . Being officially connected to the Musée Carnevalet , it has had and continues to have a positive trend and has passed from 140,000 visitors in 2008 to 180,000 visitors in 2016 , of which nearly 70 % are foreigners . The average visit lasting between 30 minutes to one hour .
We are here in the presence of a fortunate situation , conceptually not too different from that more famous case relating to the display ( 1989 ) of the Grand Louvre . During the archaeological research carried out in 1984-85 , before the building of the new museum spaces , the remains of the medieval castle of Philippe Auguste were uncovered , of which the ancient moat is accessible to visitors , who can admire the architecture of the round Great Tower , a symbol of royal power and the original core of the future Louvre from which ideally , symbolically and functionally , the new museographic journey planned by the architect Ieoh Ming Pei began .
It is evident in both the above mentioned examples that there are museographic activities which are particulary successful , in which the non-dislocation and consequent non-decontextualisation of the ruins , or rather their permanence in their original locations precisely due to centuries old stratification which has preserved them , as well as guaranteeing undoubted advantages of differing natures arising from the musealization in situ allows for both in the field of the preservation of the remains and in the field of interpretation of the same , with specific reference to museum spaces and archaeological sites . These objectives would not have been otherwise achieved in the case of the transfer and consequent decontextualization of the pre-existing archaeological presence ( Ruggieri Tricoli , M . C ., 2007 ).
If we wanted to imagine a top educational museum ( Nardi , E ., 1994 , p . 25 ) we could refer to that which Umberto Eco defined as the synecdoche museum focused on one work or object , which you reach along a route which furnishes in different ways all the information necessary to understand and enjoy the work in question . An ideal example : the whole of the Uffizi focused solely on Botticelli ’ s Spring . The other rooms are dedicated to reconstructions , films , panels , reproductionsof other works with explanations , models which allow the visitor to reach the object after having understood all of its historical and cultural background . This would include the Florentine society of the time , the aspects of material life , the literary and philosophical influences , the music , the painting techniques , the organisation of the artisan workshops and religious events ( Eco , U ., 1990 , pp . 22-23 ), which reflecting well is perhaps less utopian than it might seem at first sight . If we consider that the description fantastic does not differ much from the very successful museum displays of some splendid single-object museums , which unfortunately are still very few . For example we have the sumptuous tapestry at the Musée de la Tapisserie de la Reîne Mathilde at Bayeux in Normandy ( Ruggieri Tricoli , M . C ., 2000 , pp . 57-59 ) or the Musée of the Hotel-Dieu at Beaune in Bourgogne in which beyond the undeniable significance of the object to be displayed ( Ruggieri Tricoli
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