The Nanjing City Wall Museum is about to open: to create a model for the protection and utilization of cultural heritage

The Nanjing City Wall Museum has been completed and is about to open.　2021 City Meeting Organizing Committee courtesy of the picture

Nanjing, December 16 (Reporter Shen Ran) On the 16th, at the 2021 Nanjing Historical and Cultural City Expo (hereinafter referred to as the Famous City Fair) held in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, the head of the local cultural department revealed that the Nanjing City Wall Museum, which took more than 3 years to build, will soon open. As the largest thematic museum of the city wall in China, the museum is designed by He Jingtang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and is located under the Ming City Wall in Nanjing, in a special form to "pay tribute" to the national treasure-level cultural relics that have a history of more than 600 years around it.

Built in 1366, the Nanjing City Wall is the longest, largest and most authentic masonry city wall in the world. In January 1988, the Nanjing City Wall was listed by the State Council as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units, and it is the largest historical and cultural heritage in Nanjing.

For many years, Nanjing has been committed to the protection and renewal of the city wall. Nanjing City Wall Museum, which started the design and construction three years ago, is based on the ancient city wall, seeking a balance between historical relics and contemporary protection, according to the design drawings, the façade of the museum adopts a double silver LOW-E hollow laminated glass curtain wall, which is also the first time in China to apply this technology to a large glass curtain wall. The surrounding environment is directly reflected in the glass curtain wall, and the ancient city wall and the new building are also virtual and real.

It is reported that the entire building area of the museum is 12,000 square meters, and the ground and underground are divided into two floors, the highest point is not more than 12 meters, and the near the city wall is not more than 7 meters. The overall layout of the museum is L-shaped, and there are three sections of climbing slopes on the west side with a length of 50 meters, which echo with the Zhonghua Gate Urn City, showing a dynamic sense of "low near the city and high in the far city". The main building is based on the principle of respecting the ancient city wall, highlighting the city wall itself, so that it integrates into the surrounding environment, and realizes the perfect integration of history and reality.

Compared with the traditional museum, the Nanjing City Wall Museum has three highlights: first, the negative floor exhibition hall of the Nanjing City Wall Museum selects more than 700 wall bricks, classified according to the characteristics of the source, brick printing method, etc., and the visitors are immersed in it as if they have carried out an ancient and modern dialogue; second, the negative layer exhibition hall sets up a large Ming Dynasty Nanjing City pan, the public can clearly see the style of the Nanjing City Wall through the sand table, and intuitively feel the charm of the Nanjing City Wall; third, the museum collects more than 100 experts, citizens, The "city wall memory" of different groups of tourists and other groups is displayed by scientific and technological means, and citizens and friends can also leave messages after the opening of the museum, strengthening the interaction of the human wall while forming a continuously updated "memory" database.

"I hope that through this design, the city wall itself will become the biggest exhibit in focus." Dr. Zhou Yuan, director of the Basic Research Department of nanjing city wall protection and management center, said, "As a huge cultural relic, the city wall has a very high heritage value, and such a large-scale city wall thematic museum can display more city wall stories, so that more people can understand the city wall and love the city wall." ”

In addition, in 2020, the Nanjing City Wall Protection and Management Center compiled and published the Chinese and English book "China's Ming and Qing City Wall", which was well received in the field of international cultural relics protection, becoming another important achievement in displaying and disseminating the historical and cultural charm of the Ming and Qing city walls and helping China's Ming and Qing city walls to jointly apply for heritage. At the same time, the Nanjing City Wall Protection and Management Center actively seeks cooperation with professional international cultural relics protection institutions, and in 2020 became a group member of China's first ICOFORT (Urban Defense and Military Heritage Committee of the International Association for the Protection of Monuments and Sites). The Nanjing City Wall Protection and Management Center will also host an international conference on the protection of cultural heritage, when experts and scholars from all over the world will discuss the protection plan of the city wall.

"Through the establishment of museums and exhibitions, to achieve dialogue with the city wall, strengthen the organic interaction between the city wall and people, let more people understand the city wall, and build the international popularity of the Nanjing city wall, it is not only the original intention and mission of the Nanjing City Wall Museum, but also one of the important practices of Nanjing to explore the path of cultural heritage protection and development." The head of the cultural department in Nanjing said. (End)