Cologne, Germany - A new museum exhibiting the Catholic archdiocese of Cologne's art collection is to show modern art mixed with medieval treasures from Saturday. A 14th-century altar with a shrine for relics is exhibited alongside paintings by US pop artist Andy Warhol.
The 4,500-square-metre Kolumba Museum was built on the foundations of a Cologne church, St Columba, which was flattened by Second World War bombing and never rebuilt.
The new building, by leading Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, follows the floor plan of the late Gothic church, with some of the ruins and an archaeological excavation on show inside.
Zumthor said Thursday he had kept the museum simple, unlike some contemporary museums given sensational shapes to pull in the crowds. "It's the opposite here. The people should come because of the art," he said.
Museum director Joachim Plotzek said the idea had been to prevent people thinking in terms of art epochs.
"Showing very different artworks together is what makes it exciting," he explained.
Kolumba replaces the old diocesan museum next-door to the city's great 19th-century cathedral. The old museum closed several months ago in readiness for the move.
Till the end of the 18th century, the archbishop was a wealthy temporal ruler and the archbishopric of Cologne was one of fragmented Germany's powerful states.
