PO.RO.S at Condeixa: a New Museology

Walking among legionaries, or entering an ancient domus kitchen. At PO.RO.S museum, Condeixa, it is just like being there.

 

Whenever visiting a very old historical site, we only want television to show a documentary about it, to help us to visualize it with 3D animation what it was like the rest of that village from what we saw only the underground part and a little more above the foundations.

 

Conímbriga is one of these sites. As today, Aeminium, the present Coimbra, was halfway between two strong Roman presences in the Peninsula, Olisipo and Bracara Augusta, namely Lisbon and Braga. If time and Coimbra covered Aemonium, nothing covered Conímbriga, where we can still find beautiful Roman mosaics, squares and building ruins. To know the Roman Portugal forces a visit to Conímbriga, which, although excellently preserved, is after all a ruin, an incomplete sketch of what would have been more than 2,000 years ago.

The new PO.RO.S museum, at old Quinta de São Tomé.

 

If you left Conímbriga dreaming about what would be like the rest of the architecture, and Roman daily life, you have to go right away to PO.RO.S, just 2 km away, in Condeixa-a-Nova.

PO.RO.S is the acronym for Portugal Roman in Sicó, a new cultural space designed to explore and enhance a unique historical and cultural heritage, the legacy of Rome in Portugal.

It is a journey through the most diverse aspects of daily life during the Roman Empire, from the military to the domestic and civic life, the construction of cities and engineering, the economy and the arts, the fine ones and the others, the craft and cultural allure. 

Walking with legionaries, only possible with 3D animation. Picture taken from museum site 3D virtual visit.

 

The new technologies and a constant stimulation of the senses give the show a lively and dynamic character, able to combine knowledge with entertainment. The exhibition intends to cover the whole process of Romanization of Lusitania (Portugal for Romans) in general, and Sicó territory in particular, making the biggest trip ever made by the Epic of Rome, conveying a message of adventure, knowledge, construction and acquisition of new experiences and science provided by the encounter of cultures.

The public baths, a roman noveltie, is also a must seen on 3D recreation at PO.RO.S. Picture taken from museum site 3D virtual visit.

 

According to Patrícia Ribeiro, architect of the municipality Department of Urban Planning, "the project is guided by the vision of a strategy for the management of a dynamic, interactive and educational museological and interpretive space that allows the implementation of measures to safeguard and disseminate the Memory History of Romanization ".

 

The PO.RO.S occupies a beautiful old house, the Palace of Quinta de São Tomé, which recently became part of the municipality patrimony. Because earlier it was quite ruined, it were necessary 1.5 million euros to recover it, but bearing in mind that it now hosts a museological project so relevant to the region, it is an expense that has truly become an investment. The conversion into museum space has budgeted at more than one million euros. The E.U. funds shared both the restoration of the property turned into a museum in about 80%.

A roman domestic private scene, only possible with the new 3D animation technologie. Picture taken from museum site 3D virtual visit.

 

The virtual tour on PO.RO.S website is so good and complete that it almost dispenses the actual visit. Wait, let me rephrase: the site’s virtual visit is so good that we are immediately tempted to go to Condeixa. See it all here.

 

PO.RO.S - Portugal Roman Museum in Sicó

Quinta de São Tomé

Avenida Bombeiros Voluntários de Condeixa-a-Nova, nº41

3150-160 Condeixa-a-Nova

About a two hour drive from Lisbon

Phone: 239 949 122

Price: € 5; junior € 3; students and seniors € 3.5

Between April and September: 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.; October to March: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Closed on Mondays.

 

Images provided by the institution or taken from its site.