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Kolumba is the art museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne, originally founded in 1853. Since 2004, the museum has borne the name of its new location amidst the ruins of the late Gothic parish church of St Kolumba, thus providing a spiritual home to the collection. A triad of place, collection, and architecture, it allows the visitor to experience two millennia of western culture in a single building. Comprising art from late antiquity to the very present, the whole ensemble is imbued with a still reverberating sense of history - visibly intensified through its distinctive architecture. The modern building is a harmonious combination designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor (2007) to merge both the Gothic ruins of St Kolumba and Böhm's chapel »Madonna in the Ruins« (1950). with the unique archaeological excavation site (1973-76). Kolumba has been aptly termed »a museum of contemplation in which there is an ongoing dialogue between past and present« (Sarah McFadden, Art in America).
