Thessaloniki Metro: A museum is being created at the “Fountain” station – The findings of the excavation research amount to 300,000

As a modern museum, exhibition and storage space, the building will function at the intersection of the tracks (crossover) at the “Fountain” station for the detached antiquities and movable finds of the excavations of the Metropolitan Railway of Thessaloniki. The new museum will have as its main narrative axis the urban development of the city, along its central artery. The Museum will host and highlight part of the movable finds and detached antiquities, which were uncovered during the construction of the Metro, and is located within the Campus of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, south of the central library. The multi-year excavations carried out as part of the construction project of the Metropolitan Railway, in Thessaloniki, brought to light approximately 300,000 movable finds and yielded a large number of detached antiquities.

As stated by the Minister of Culture and Sports, Lina Mendoni: “The detached and temporarily stored antiquities are rare material, which constitute evidence of the historical development of Thessaloniki, as they offer the possibility of approaching it, through the infrastructure of the ancient city, public networks, construction technology and its building history. In addition, these are ancient, large-scale constructions that, due to their dimensions, cannot be accommodated in a conventional building. The rectangular underground building at the intersection of the tracks (crossover) at the “Fountain” Station, which refers to an excavation section and has a static capacity for large loads, is the ideal place for their deposition and retrieval. The Museum in the Crossover building will operate independently and, at the same time, in parallel with the Metro Museum, which is already being configured to operate, within the preserved barracks building, in the Metropolitan Park of Pavlos Melas. The findings that will be housed in these two museums tell and highlight the urban development in the palimpsest of Thessaloniki».

The Museum, at the “Fountain” station, will be developed on four levels with a total area of ​​6,370 sq.m. To serve the museum use, but also to connect the building with the city, above-ground spaces are created. Levels -1 and -2 will function, mainly, as exhibition spaces for the antiquities, extracted from the excavations. Prominent among them is the section of the decumanus maximus, which comes from the excavation of the “Agia Sophia” station. Initially this section of the road was planned to be re-located at the station itself. However, modifications made to this station in 2017 made it impossible to restore it there. On level -3, museum warehouses will be installed for the mobile findings of the excavations, part of which will be accessible to the public. At the same level, the installation of all the necessary accompanying functions is foreseen.

The schedule for the completion of the relocation studies of the temporarily detached antiquities in the Thessaloniki Metro, as announced by the Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni, in Thessaloniki last September, is being followed with absolute consistency.

According to the schedule, within the two months of October-November 2022, the studies of the relocation of the temporarily detached finds will have been completed and examined by the Central Archaeological Council, in combination with the studies of their conservation and recovery. The KAS has already given a unanimous positive opinion on the restoration study of the cistern, which had been detached in 2017, at the northern entrance of the “Agia Sophia” station, east of the marble-paved square. The relocation of the monument is expected to be completed within this year. A few weeks ago the restoration of the marble square, the pilaster and the columns was completed. The monumental ensemble is the most imposing and luxurious architecture of its kind, which has been revealed to date in Thessaloniki, not only in terms of its dimensions but also in terms of its state of preservation. The antiquities discovered during the Metro construction works at the “Agia Sophia” station are of equal, if not greater, scientific importance than the antiquities of the “Venizelos” station.

The reconstruction of the fountain is placed in the years of the successors of Constantine I, in the same urban plan, as the marble-paved road. The pio-shaped nymphaeum belongs to the type with a theatrical facade (scaenae frons) and was rebuilt in contact with the northern building line of the decumanus maximus by removing part of the pavement and the northern portico of the street. In its original form it was straight. Later the side strands were added. The function of the nymphaeum was served by hydraulic infrastructures, a supply tank as well as a complex and dense network of pipes, water supplies and sewers, which were built on the ruins of urban mansions of the 3rd-4th centuries. The monument shows continuous renovations throughout the 5th and 6th centuries. In the construction phase, when the vertical lateral legs were added, a rectangular open tank was formed on its main face, at street level. In a later phase, a more formal terrace was formed, with a low open tank and marble basins, which rest on holographic lion heads. The vertical surfaces are covered either with embossed marble slabs or with plain marble slabs. The fountain continued to function until the earthquakes of the 7th century, when it was reconstructed as a small reservoir, on the western side of the original building, by reusing older marble members from the monument itself.

Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.