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copyright 2013 La scuola di Pitagora editriceVia Monte di Dio, 5480132 NapoliTelefono e Fax +39 081 7646814

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ISBN 978-88-6542-290-8

Carmine Gambardella (a cura di)HERITAGE ARCHITECTURE LANDESIGNfocus on CONSERVATION REGENERATION INNOVATION

Le vie dei MercantiXI Forum Internazionale di Studi

editing:Caterina Cristina FiorentinoManuela Piscitelli

Finito di stampare nel mese di maggio 2013


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Between anti-museum and interactive museum: the case study ofPaolo Orsi in Syracuse, Italy

Alessio CARDACI1, Antonella VERSACI2, Luca FAUZIA2(1)Department ofEngineering, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy(2) Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, KORE University, Enna, Italy

AbstractSet up in 1884, for collecting the eastern Sicily's antiquities, the National Archaeological Museum ofSyracuse has evolved during the time following the implementation of collections and thetransformations of the concept of the museum's role in society. Initially based on a nucleus composedof a few objects and some private collections, it was gradually enriched during a period of almost fiftyyears of intensive excavation and research undertaken by Paolo Orsi. Benefiting from the rigorousscientific requirements indicated by Luigi Bernab Brea, the museum started a new life when it movedto Villa Landolina's area where a new structure was conceived by the architect Franco Minissi, apersonality already well known in the museography's field. The building and the exhibit design werestudied by Minissi to ensure the maximum flexibility. The idea was to create a museum in movementor an anti-museum able to adapt to the scientific progress and new archaeological discoveries.Conceived by its creator as a vital center for research and cultural promotion, the museum, thanks tovirtual reality technologies, can today found new capabilities. Starting from a careful "reading" of the

building and its environment, made by integrating surveying methods, this case study intends tocontribute to the definition of a new approach to the museum visitor experiences through multimedia.

Keywords:Museography, Interactive museum, Cultural heritage, Franco Minissi, Syracuse

1. Origin and development of the National Archaeological Museum "Paolo Orsi"Following the creation of the Kingdom of Italy, the need of conveying and reinforcing the new unitednation through the recognition of a common cultural and artistic heritage, resulted in the transformationof the management of cultural institutions in the former states, placing them under its exclusivecontrol. Italy maintained initially unchanged the homogeneous legislative body of the pre-unitary statesin the field of protection of heritage, even due to the obvious difficulties dictated by the opportunity of

reconciling the liberal ideology with the public interest resulting from the preservation of cultural goods.During the first years of the young Italy, the legislation in this sensitive field was thereforecharacterized by the persistence of a territorially differentiated discipline and by the freedom of privateowners to make indiscriminate use of theirworks of art, including their alienation abroad. This, withthe only exception of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies where this practice had already been banned bythe Bourbon government, also admitting the possibility to expropriate the monuments belonging toindividuals, whether in ruins because of neglect [1].More concrete protection activities in favor of artistic heritage in the new state will begin, however, onlyin the last two decades of the 19thcentury with the establishment of the national museums. It was thefirst attempt of gathering the small private collections also by virtue of an artistic and cultural heritage'slegal status, by then recognized as a public good with collective purposes. We still have to wait untilJune 12, 1902, so that the first law of protection was promulgated and the catalogo unico deimonumenti e delle opere di interesse storico, artistico e archeologico di propriet statale established.However, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, well in advance of the rest of the peninsula since the end of'700, had felt the need to bring together the artistic and archaeological heritage allowing its accessand knowledge to the scholars and the whole community.

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1.1 At the beginning of the protection of the archaeological collections in SyracuseIn the city of Syracuse, the objects that foreign travelers came to admire had, until that time, beenprotected by a few families, notable art collectors. One of the oldest collections was that accumulatedby the archaeologist Vincenzo Mirabella, who gathered in his great building opposite the church ofSan Tommaso Apostolo, in Ortigia, a number of "endless scraps of weights, mosaics, granite andmarble" [2]. It is although to 1780 that the origins of a museum institution date back, when the BishopG. Baptist Alagona, brought a small collection together in the library-museum of the Seminary, locatedin Piazza del Duomo[3].At the end of the century, the creation of a city museum combined with a cabinet of natural history wasrequested by the poet Tommaso Gargallo. He raised the issue of gathering up in a single collection"simple homelands objects, both cultural and natural value"; i.e. whether those were in possession ofsome collectors or those coming from the new excavations undertaken by Landolina's family [4]. Forthe first time, the need to establish a native museum came to light. Certainly, times were not ripe yetbut this proposal became stronger following the discovery in the orto Bonavia, in the ancient district ofArcadia, of the statues of Asclepius (7 December 1803) and of the Venus Anadyomene (7 January1804) by Saverio Landolina, the regio Custode delle antichit delle due valli Demone e Noto.Landolina will vigorously carry forward the purpose of creating a museum. This intention seemed evenmore necessary in light of the fact that those exceptional discoveries have had a so high resonance tomake stronger the interest of antiquarians and travelers against "Syracuse buried antiquities" [5,6].According to his idea, the city museum would have to collect not only the discoveries of new

archeological excavations but all the material scattered in private collections in order to offer toscholars and visitors, a complete overview of the archaeological heritage of the town.In addition, the discovery of Venus, while it had increased the interest of scientists to localarchaeology, on the other hand, had attracted the attention of the Royal Court, which could solicit itstransfer to Naples under the pretext of the lack of a proper seat in Syracuse. A request that will beadvanced several times but always been circumvented by Landolina. His frantic search for localswhere to accommodate the new museum will finally succeed in September 1809 when the Bishop ofSyracuse Filippo Maria Trigona will offer some rooms in the Seminary to form the first city museum.The initiative was quickly approved by the king and the museum opened on April 20, 1811. Theorganization of the museum was ensured by Mario Landolina (his father had meanwhile withdrawnbecause hit by a paresis) but it was not an easy task. The collection was made up of precious Greekand Roman monuments, ceramic materials of different nature, inscriptions, lamps, Christians claypots, paintings, urns and charnel houses but museum's spaces were limited. It was precisely for this

reason that a discussion on its extension will be launched [7].1.2 From the establishment of the first premises to Paolo Orsi's activitiesIt is following the discovery of the sarcophagus of Adelphia on June 12, 1872, during the researchcarried out by Saverio Cavallari in the caves of San Giovanni[8], that we can assist to a new impetusin order to give better placement to the civic valuable works of art. In 1876, an agreement was signedbetween the Central Government and the Town Hall for the construction of a new building for themuseum that was originally supposed to rise in the place of the Post Office building. This hypothesiswas therefore abandoned in favor of the church of San Giovanni di Dio. In the meantime, however, thecivic museum, temporarily located in the premises of the Seminary, next to the Alagonian library, wasdeclared a Regio Museo Archeologico Nazionale. In December 1880, the demolition andtransformation work designed by the engineer Luigi Mauceri and concerning the church of SanGiovanni di Dioand the annexed Fate Bene Fratellihospital, begin [9]. The work was interrupted for

two years and restarted only in the summer of 1882, under the direction of Luigi Spagna. The buildingwas completed in 1885 and the museum officially opened on 11 April 1886.The establishment of a state museum in Syracuse, a few years from the Italian unification, was a veryimportant political act, also in relation to the place it stood, an area inhabited since prehistoric times,later become the center of the religious life during Greek colonization with the sanctuary of Artemisand Athena. The new structure was born in order to preserve the archaeological material coming notonly from Syracuse but from whole Eastern Sicily, as had already been in Western Sicily, by virtue ofthe construction of the Archaeological Museum of Palermo. The first director of the fledgling NationalArchaeological Museum was Francesco Saverio Cavallari, who was arrived in Syracuse one yearbefore, after having been the Direttore deIle Antichit di Sicilia. The technical report made by LuigiSpagna on 10 July 1879, states that on the first floor was placed a small library and that the museumhad five halls: the hall of epigraphy and of the Christian sculptures from the catacombs, the hall ofstatuaries, the hall of the Greek-Roman fragments, the Tribune of Venus, the hall of the ceramics. But

it was thanks to the contribution of the archaeologist Paolo Orsi, that the contents were remarkablyenriched with new discoveries that gave more and more scientific character and prestige to theorganization of the museum. Named in 1888 as inspector of the state museum, the youngarchaeologist Paolo Orsi (Fig. 1) became in 1895 its director, in place of Cavallari, maintaining this

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role until 1934. Welcomed, not without suspicion, in the Royal Superintendent of Syracuse, he wasimmediately attracted by the Greek origins of the city and by the charm of its many archaeological

remains. He then immediately began an intense series of field investigations and collections thatenabled him to draw the first systematic historical study on the original cultures of the Sicilians, thepre-Hellenic Sicily, the famous Sikeloi. The activities carried out by Orsi were not therefore only limitedto the issue of island's origins. His researches on Greek civilization in Sicily, and especially inSyracuse, were highly profitable. The studies that he undertook about the Athenian still represent areal scientific breakthrough. His interest was also directed towards the discovery and the knowledge ofsacred places and public buildings, such as the Greek necropolis and the Olympian Zeus of Syracuse.He personally accomplished very daring explorations to the necropolis of Pantalica, Cassibile,Megara, Castelluccio, Thapson, Licodia, Valsavoi [10].It was the growth of artifact collections and documents coming from the large excavation expeditionsmainly conducted by Paolo Orsi - in a methodical, for the time, rigorous and advanced manner - tolead to the need of designing new spaces for the museum. Already in 1916, Paolo Orsi hadcomplained to the Directorate General of Antiquities and Fine Arts in Rome, the lack of space. The

museum's collection already included in the early 20

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century, numerous items concerning theprehistory of central and eastern Sicily, architectural terracottas, simulacra, small statues found in thetombs and sanctuaries, painted vases representative of all periods, ceramics, and the main pride ofthe museum, a large coin collection. A repertoire so vast that Guido Libertini in the introduction to hisguide at the museum of Syracuse said: "Faced with this wealth of materials we understand how spacecould now be lacking and therefore how the various collections, packed in different environments whilewaiting for a desirable forthcoming enlargement of the premises, are not always arranged in a strictchronological order"[11]. But an extension will be possible only many years later.

1.3 The methodological rigor of Luigi Bernab Brea for a re-foundation of the museumAt the end of 1941, when Luigi Bernab Brea moved to the Department of Antiquities of Eastern Sicily,following a fascist measure by which the State officials from the North were transferred to the Southand vice-versa, other major renovations were undertaken inside the museum, of which the

archaeologist itself became director in 1942. Since his arrival in Syracuse, he had to struggle with theproblem of protection of the collections from the danger of bombing, hiding them in the Akrai cavesand in the Galleries of Euriaolo Castle. In the summer of 1942, the museum was hit by a bomb,damaging the Christian room. The coins, however, were temporarily transferred first to Rome, then tothe Abbey of Montecassino and finally to the Vatican, before returning to Syracuse. The VenusLandolina was kept in the basement of the museum. At the end of the war, he activated immediatelyfor the reopening of the museum. Then, he began to recover the material from air-raid shelters andmade a review of inventory starting, when necessary, the restoration of the pieces that, stocked ininsalubrious places, had been affected by degradation phenomena. Bernab Brea organizedfurthermore, an intensive program of research in the field.In 1948, through a letter to the Ministry, he announced the reopening of the museum. To get an ideaof the problems he faced, it can be cited the fact that most of the windows were shattered, and sincehe did not have the money to buy new ones, he replaced them with cardboard wrapping. It was only

thanks to his tenacity that the problem was solved. An outstanding financement followed the visitundertaken in 1950 by the then President of the Italian Council of Ministers, Alcide De Gasperi.Luigi Bernab Brea also succeeded in the '40s in the establishment of the first expansion of theNational Museum with the reorganization of the material from Orsi's excavations, at that time massed

Fig. 1: The Archeological Museum in Piazza del Duomos premises (left) and some objects from collection (right).

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in the premises of the museum. The artifacts were exhibited according to an appropriatereorganization based on the exact archaeological chronology, especially in regard to the two majorGreek colonies in Sicily, Syracuse and Megara Hyblaea. He proposed, in addition, for the new roomsof the museum, a particular solution which consisted in integrating to the traditional display, underlyingdrawers shielded by glass in which fragmentary finds from the excavations were placed. Amuseological solution that reflected the desire for comprehensiveness in the presentation of theobjects [12]. The most innovative aspect in Bernab Breas approach to the museum consisted,however, in his strong desire to transform it in a place accessible to the public, no longer a "museumtemple" or an "exhibition hall" according to the conception of 18 th-19th centuries, but a placechangeable, adaptable, flexible on which to make the visitor, the true protagonist of the exhibition.Despite the new museum, Bernab Brea was aware that an intensification of the excavations in thearchaeological sites of the island could lead to significant amounts of exhibits that would not havebeen possible to accumulate exclusively in the museum of Syracuse. So he decided to set up a seriesof local museums having an independent coordination and acting as "introduction" entities in thearchaeological areas and working as strategic bases for the elaboration of the excavation data and thepresentation of the artifacts discovered in the respective sites.The current location of the museum of Syracuse had, however, become inadequate to host thecollections and all the other functions necessary for the proper functioning of the museum. In recentyears, moreover, depositories and laboratories were moved to other buildings, creating some obviousinconveniences to the smooth running of the structure. The modern museological criteria, the

advancement of technology for a better use of the museum and the reduced availability of spaces notlarge enough for a "logic" exhibition of the archeological finds, made it necessary, in the late '50s thefinding of new premises. Strongly attached to Piazza Duomo - a place which he considered as thesymbolic heart of the Greek colony -, convinced as he was of the importance of maintaining a closerelationship between the building and the contents, and being at the same time an enemy of the"modern", he initially proposed to purchase two historic buildings in Piazza Duomo: PalazzoBeneventano del Boscoand Palazzo Arezzo della Targia. The idea was to make them become part ofan ante litteram"widespread museum".To this solution, it was, however, preferred the construction of a building much larger, far from thecourtyard of Ortigia: a new structure that "would eliminate the shortage of space, giving a qualitativeand quantitative answer to the update required by the scientific progress" [13]. To this end, it waschosen an area situated not far from the Greek theater and the excavations in Piazza Vittoria,adjacent to the catacombs of San Giovanni. The new archaeological museum "Paolo Orsi" was,

therefore, located in the park of Villa Landolina and the project entrusted to Franco Minissi in 1967.

2. From the design to the building of the new Archaeological Museum (1960-1988)For the design of the new museum, Bernab Brea had initially contacted the architect Giuliani,charging him to draw up an initial schematic diagram of which, however, does not seem to be a trace.Later, he turned to Vincent Cabianca and Franco Minissi - both well known for their work in the field ofmuseography - entrusted them with the architectural project. He will, also, be their main contact fromthe initial concept to the inauguration on 16 January 1988. His role will be crucial, since it will help toprovide the methodological approach of the museum, also taking care of the drawings in scale of 1:10of all the pieces included in the collection, in order to proceed with the exhibit design. Even in 1978,when he had already left the assignment of superintendent and the work for the construction of thenew museum restarted after a long break, he will contribute to the work of Giuseppe Voza and PaolaPelagatti aiming at the reassessment of the immense amount of material to be selected for the

display.

2.1 The reorganization of the museum in the area of Villa LandolinaThanks to the contribution of the Cassa del Mezzogiorno, the Ministry of Education took over the vastarea of Villa Landolina for the creation of the new museum. The scientific program developed byBernab Brea forthe organization of the museum primarily related to the historical and topographicalbackground during well-defined periods, so that each section would represent a clearly defined andcircumscribed historical or historical-artistic period and provide as complete a picture of Sicily aspossible, for any given period. It would, therefore, have to be structured in accordance with thecreation of a first section on prehistory, a second dedicated to the history of the Greek colonization ofSicily, a third to the Roman conquest of Syracuse, a fourth picturing Sicily during the late Hellenisticperiod, a fifth dealing with Sicily during the Roman Empire and, finally, a Byzantine-Christian section,representing Syracuse and eastern Sicily from the late Empire to the Arab conquest.

According to Bernab Brea, some current difficulties in the arrangement of the archaeologicalmuseums derived from the two conflicting requirements necessarily had to be satisfied at the sametime. The need of a rigorous selection for the general public "with only a small number of exhibitspresented in the most attractive possible way", whereas scholars wanted to see the largest possible

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amount of material in its proper setting of which it formed part being " often bitterly disappointed when,having travelled a long way for the special purpose, they find some magnificent pieces superblypresented but have the greatest difficulty in obtaining access to study material which, for theirpurposes, is often also of major interest" [14].In the opinion of Bernab Brea, this kind of problem would be solved by attaching to each section onthe ordinary visitors circuit, other rooms specifically conceived for specialists. These would bearranged on a completely different basis, with the accent laid on clarity and thoroughness ofdocumentation rather than on its attractiveness layout. This would reduce, at the same time, the actualstorerooms to the bare minimum, leaving them to serve exclusively for material not lending itself to theexhibition because of its quality or its excessive quantity.The architects were so invited to plan the museum's interiors as a single space to be subdivided asthe requirements of the archaeological material to be exhibited demanded.

2.2 Minissi's project for the creation of an anti-museumThe task of designing the new Paolo Orsi was certainly not casually assigned to Franco Minissi andVincenzo Cabianca, whose role in the field of museography had already been widely recognized. Inparticular, the work of Franco Minissi, resulting from vast and diverse cultural relationships, rangingfrom the inputs of the Modern Movement and the wealth of principles, methods and criteria comingfrom the Italian Central Institute for Restoration, was already at that time (and still is more concretelynowadays) a reality of great importance in the framework of activities for the conservation and

valorization of artistic heritage. Advocate of a rethinking of museography, which he rightly considered,as a branch of the restoration discipline, he carried out its activities according to the values ofinnovation, experimentation and quality, declining in architectural form the Brandis concepts related topreventive restoration. A task that the museum must perform, creating the conditions to preserve and,in visibility, transmit the works of art to the future generations.In the case of "Paolo Orsi", the architectural plans and the display design were studied by Minissi inorder to ensure the highest ductility. The idea was to create a "museum in movement", a kind of anti-museum (as the superintendent Voza said at the inauguration [15]) able to expand with theincrementing of the collections from excavations and the progress of scientific research [16]. It was toobtain this "flexibility" - furthermore explicitly required to the designers - that a centrally-based schemewas chosen. This would allow the didactic sections to be grouped together at the center, from which -spreading out like the petals of a daisy - the sections containing the exhibits could be followed inlogical sequence. Moreover, the architectural plans were founded on the modular principle of an

equilateral triangular mesh, to which even the didactical equipment and the display cabinets adapted.In this way, all rigidity would be eliminated, allowing the visitor to choice of making either a completeand organized visit or a partial one during which he could freely go to any of the sections of particularinterest to him, without having to follow the general itinerary.The museum, designed to establish itself as a " living center for research and promotion of culture"[16], was set on three floors (including a basement) for a total area of 12,000 square meters, perfectlyintegrated with the surrounding natural space, showing the clear influences from Frank Lloyd Wright'sorganic commandment. Once again, as required by the "client", each section was composed by ahistorical-didactic section, an exhibition of what might be called first selection material, an exhibitionof second selection material (i.e., works and references of particular interest to researchers), and astoreroom.After several hitches, work interruptions due to the lack of funds, changes during the constructionphase and unavoidable maintenance interventions, the museum was opened to the public in 1988

(even if only the sections on the ground floor had been staged), benefiting from a wide internationallyresonance.In May 2006, the pavilion D on the third floor of the museum was inaugurated in execution of a projectdelivered in 2001, while the set-up of E and F sectors is expected in the coming months. The areadevoted to medals, the last transferred from Piazza Duomo, was opened in 2010 and is located in thebasement of the museum.

3. Towards an open and widespread fruition of the hiddenheritageThe intensive archaeological research conducted in Sicily in the last decennia, the richness ofexcavated sites and the large amount of discoveries, have required over time, an adjustment of themuseum spaces in order to accommodate the new archeological items. The structure retains today animmense number of objects, many of which, not finding a place in the exhibition halls, are collected inthe depositories located in the basement of the structure in spaces that, in Minissi's plans, were not

designed for this purpose. The greater amount of the objects did not find accommodation in the glasscases exposed to the public, but are contained in "boxes" kept in rooms accessible - albeit with theunderstandable organizational and administrative difficulties - only to a fortunate few scholars.

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This heritage discovered but still "hidden" in some cases has not been adequately studied yet (kept formany years in sometimes inadequate containers and without having verified its conservation status),but in many others, cataloged and restored, it will perhaps never find location within the permanentinstallation, since the integration of all elements would require an enormous amount of space andresources. In addition, the cultural purpose of the museum is the collection of knowledge and itstransmission. Acts that operate through the presentation of works chosen from among the bestmaintained examples of greater or historical/artistic value; the exhibit of fragments and/or minor worksof art, although often of fundamental importance for the scholars, is of little interest to the generic userthat does not have, in general, the necessary cultural background to fully understand and appreciatetheir value.The fruition and the valorization of this hidden asset is nevertheless possible - apart from theconstruction of new exhibition spaces (probably useless if the "physical" consultation of many minorworks is of interest to a few scholars) - through the network and the use of digital technologies.Electronic catalogs, whose first applications to cultural heritage had purely documentary purposes,have experienced in the last decade an evolutionary process that promoted them from simpledatabases to interactive multimedia systems, turning their function as a simple tool for cataloging toefficient machine for disclosure. The network "has become a privileged environment for theconsultation and the sharing of knowledge, to facilitating the work and the integration of the bodies incharge of documentation and the protection of cultural heritage, but also for its use by a wideraudience. The goal today is no longer that of cataloging the single good but also its relationship with

the cultural context, while from informatics point of view there is a tendency not so much related to thedefinition of uniform standards, but rather to the interoperability between systems born withcharacteristics and for different purposes, but all useful to the increasing of information " [17] both in anational and supranational dimensions.The Sicilian Region, through its Department of Culture and Sicilian Identityhas started a few yearsago and through its website, an online consultation of digital publications, videos, photos, virtual anddedicated sites of the largest regional museums and archaeological parks [18]. This tool is, however,limited to a general aim and to touristic purposes, as the contents are more simple presentations ofthe areas of greatest interest - though widely documented - or educational projects, than a truescientific instrument aimed at the enhancement of the hidden heritage. In addition, the platform doesnot interface with other systems and it is closed on the outside, making it difficult to update the dataand impossible to include new contributions from third parties.

3.1 From the integrated survey to the interactive and virtual museumThe case study here presented intends to show the early stages of a pilot project launched by theLaboratory of Restoration of Architectural and Cultural Heritage of KORE University in collaborationwith the University of Bergamo. This research began with the need to answer to some planning needsthat, colliding with the hard "reading" of the edifice because of the many changes and adaptations ofthe premises (not documented), asked for an in-depth historical analysis and the realization of acomplete survey (metric, geometric and material) of the building and the area surrounding it. Theacquired data, subsequently integrated with other elements of detail, also revealed themselves as animportant database for the establishment of a multimedia platform at differentiated levels ofaccessibility, firstly useful to the museum's administration to the appropriate need for control andmaintenance but that could easily also be opened to scholars and tourists, with a view to create aninteractive or a virtual museum.Here is that the project has been developed starting from the idea that in order to correctly understand

an architectural organism, its critical observation cannot be disregarded. It is, actually, important todetect what the building generously shows but especially what it jealously hides. This twofoldrecognition allows making the essential breakthrough for the planning of any following intervention(restoration, rehabilitation, redesign, reuse, etc.). In particular, the survey made by integratedmethodologies (traditional, advanced and innovative), led to the creation of the fully navigable 3Ddigital model of the museum. Organized at various levels in order to make clear the form and thearchitectural structure, it has allowed the understanding of the entire building: a vast system based ona hexagonal geometry that found in the interaction between the environment and the constant changeof heights, its most interesting spatial character. It could, however, also offer the opportunity to"virtually" visit the museum from the park outside of the places currently inaccessible (Fig. 2).In this study, the first approach to the sites was accomplished through free applications available onthe net - such as Google Earth allowing the view of satellite images and aerial photographs, with avery high detail. This platform, in addition to the visualization of multi-scale mapping and free access

to GIS information, permits a single user to enter additional information in the form of links to beshared and made accessible to other users. Links that, in the case of our museum, from itsgeographical identification might refer to detailed information, such as the site plan and other data,connected, for example, to the altimetry and to the pathways.

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The combined use of GPS instrument and total station for the overall understanding of the building,even in relation to the urban environment - georeferenced both through coordinates acquired from

satellite network and by means of a topographic polygonal used for the "forced centering" of scansperformed with the terrestrial laser scanner - has allowed to acquire a large amount of data and usefulinformation (Fig. 3a, b).Moreover, it was produced, with a specific application and only by way of example, a virtual tourallowing visiting the park of Villa Landolina and the burial path situated outside the museum. This tour,applicable to the entire museum complex, could be accessible, via web or remotely, through mobiledevices such as smartphones and tablets (Fig. 3c), so offering the opportunity of conducting animmersive interactive experience whose purpose is to approach the real visit of the place, both interms of visual quality and emotional perception, especially if supplemented by the inclusion ofmultimedia elements (text, audio, videos, maps) [19].Finally, the possibilities offered by the creation of "pages" containing information within sharedmultimedia platform, have been exploited as a tool of diffusion and dissemination of archaeologicalstudies as well as of the activities of the museum. To this end, "dynamic" procedures have beenstudied in order to create models of data sheets related to the archeological objects exhibited or not,including their 3D visualization, acquired by using a high precision laser scanner and/or digitalphotogrammetry (Fig. 4a, b).

4. ConclusionsDuring the last two centuries, the concept of museum and its role in the society has changeddramatically. Museums are no longer sacred and untouchable. On the contrary, they have been (andstill are) subjected to a wide process of rethinking, that has requested an intense examination of thevalues and meanings they imply, the aims and the nature of the services offered, as well as of therelationship between them and the people they wish to serve: the public [20]. The museologicalresearch has been enriched by new technical acquisitions and wider methodological horizons thathave fundamentally transformed the concepts of display and collecting [21]. The vision of the museumas a static entity has definitely been overcome by a new idea based on the establishment of dynamicplatforms [22, 23].The fast development of digital technology and of computer graphics hasrevolutionized the visitor's approach to the museum by creating interactive experiences throughout amuseum, as well as remote experiences for those who cannot get there.

Fig. 2: The 3D model of Museum Paolo Orsi.

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The numerous projects already accomplished in this field (the main museums in the world havedeveloped web sites that are more and more advanced in order to promote their collections andactivities [24]) show how the virtual reality can help, for example by complementing a real visit to theplace, in case it had stimulated a special interest or an intellectual curiosity; or by encouraging users

to go there after having obtained through the web an overview of what the museum can offer.This case study shows how digital technology could overcome problems dictated by the shortage ofspace and the presence of logistical constraints, restoring or enhancing the original spirit of theknowledge sharing placethat Bernab Brea and Minissi envisioned for the archeological museum of

Fig. 3: Images from the integrated survey: urban plan acquired by GPS (a), orthographic projections obtained by3D laser scanning (b) and panoramic virtual tour realized by photo sticking (c).

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Syracuse. We are sure that taking the road of innovation will allow this priceless heritage to express itsfull potential by promoting an "open and widespread" concept of culture. The ideal thing (perhaps autopia...) would be to establish a museum where the motto is: no doors, no guards, no wall, and nolimits.

Bibliographical References

[1] COSI, Dante. Diritto dei Beni e delle attivit culturali. Roma: Ed. Aracne, 2008, 276 p.

[2] DI PAOLA AVOLIO Francesco. Memorie intorno al Cav. Mirabella e Alagona, Palermo, 1820.

[3] ADORNO, Salvatore, FAI, Roberto. Siracusa agli albori del novecento. Personaggi ed eventi.

Siracusa: Accademia delle Arti visive, 1995, 63 p.[4] GARGALLO Tommaso. Memorie Patrie per lo ristoro della citt di Siracusa , Napoli: StamperiaReale, 1791

Fig. 4: 3D model of a roman head obtained using a Faro arm with laser scan head (a) and 3D model of asarcophagus acquired by automatic image matching (b).

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[5] POLITI, Raffaello. Sul simulacro di Venere trovato in Siracusa. Catania: Boemi, 1996. p. 27.Ristampa anastica dell'edizione di Palermo, 1826.

[6] CUGNO, Santino Alessandro. La tutela delle collezioni archeologiche a Siracusa tra XVIII e XIXsecolo e la creazione del Museo Civico. In:Archeomafie, a. III, vol. 3, 2011, pp. 34-52.

[7] AGNELLO, Giuseppe. Il Museo Archeologico di Siracusa e le poco note vicende della suafondazione. In: Siculorum Gymnasium, n.s. XXI,1, gennaio-giugno 1968, Universit di Catania,

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[8] CAVALLARI, Francesco Saverio. Sul sarcofago ritrovato nelle tombe di Siracusa. In: Bollettinodella Commissione di Antichit e Belle Arti in Sicilia, n. 5, 1872, p. 22-27.

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