About US -- National Museum of Damascus

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DAMASCUS

In 1919, during the short-lived freedom following the departure of the Ottoman troops, the idea to build a small museum to preserve the Syrian antiquities, taken under Turkish rule to the museum of Istanbul, was conceived. That project was realized turning some of the halls of the Arab Academy, into the madrasah Adiliya in the Old Damascus. Those halls were soon insufficient to keep newly and frequently discovered archaeological finds.

In 1935, the discovery of two important monuments of enormous value - the second Century Palmyra tomb and the third Century Synagogue of Doura-Europos - brought to the construction of a new museum, needed to keep the two mentioned monuments, and the Greek, Roman and Byzantine antiquities, which needed more space. At that time it was decided to set up the pre-Hellenistic collection into the Museum of Aleppo and the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic-Arabic collections into the Museum of Damascus.  

The plan was based on the idea of reassembling the hypogeal tomb and the Synagogue as they originally were, keeping the atmosphere of the surrounding environment. The whole structure was built keeping in mind these two elements, planning a rational musicological placement and, at the same time, keeping a continuity with the adjacent structures, and in particular with the 16^th Century Turkish Mosque on the left of the present entrance to the Museum.

 

The building has than been located inside a large garden with a L shape (where are a number of statues, stone material of classical period coming from different locations  and  several mosaics). The nearby Mosque is separated by a mass of trees. The volumes of the buildings are articulated by a number of indents in order to appear as a not too tall building, having the same size of the Mosque. The external finishing was realized taking as model  the  XIII century Arab-Syrian architecture.

 

From the entrance hall, sited on the Mosque side (now reserved to the exhibition of antiquities of classical times coming from coastal sides), one could enter two orthogonal oriented galleries which would lie to the halls now containing  classical  antiquities (Jabal el Arab, Hauran, Palmyra e Dura Europos). From the same hall, one could enter the hypogenous tomb, the Synagogue and the working areas (it was previously preview  an office for the curator and his secretary, a library, an office for the conservation of historical  monuments, a restoration laboratory, a photographs laboratory). This area was occupying what is now the area for the Byzantine art. The two orthogonally oriented galleries were modulated by show-cases inside the walls, while the big exposition rooms should contain stone material  of  large dimension. Stairs were leading to the upper floor, reserved to coin and jewels exhibition.
 

The discovering of  the ruins of an Omayyad Quasar al-Hair Castle, not far from Palmira, brought to build an extension of the museum, in order to exhibit part of the  principal  façade of the castle, 32 m length  per 15 m high. In fact it could not be located in any of the museum halls. In the ’50, was than built up the three stories western side, whose entrance was displaced and remodeled between the two towers of the castle. The court gallery inside the castle thus became the atrium of the museum and it also become the corridor for the flowing of the public towards the  two wings. 

The new construction was meant to contain a new department  of Arab –Islamic Art and a department of Oriental Antiquities. The upper floor contains a Department of Modern Art besides an hall for temporary expositions and a library. Following such refurbishment, the Museum  does not have a single route, rather two different ones leading to the two wings of the palace, unified then by the castle hall. The collections exhibition is not presented in a chronological succession, at the time, it is presented by a typological order, or in a geographical arrangement, or even the way is neither a linear one nor a definite one.

 

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