Frame of Form
Shelter for Roman Ruins is one of Peter Zumthor’s early works, built in 1985–1986 in the Welschdörfli quarter of Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland. It shelters the remains of the Roman settlement Curia Raetorum and even older traces that go back to the Neolithic period. The structure is listed as a cultural site of national importance and received an award for good buildings in Graubünden in 1987.
The building is a light timber construction with a metal roof and open lamella walls that echo the irregular ground plan of the ruins below. Three halls are connected by a narrow walkway, and dim skylights bring in soft daylight so that the excavated walls, floor levels and fragile mural fragments can be seen without being exposed. It is both protective cover and small museum at the same time.
Inside the shelter you can walk above the Roman remains, read traces of domestic life and wall paintings and look down through the timber grid to the archaeological layers. The shelter offers a calm, almost dark atmosphere that focuses attention on stone, earth and the sound of footsteps.
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