By drawing heavy leather curtains, we enter a landscape of recollection – an archaeological hall, probably the most fascinating space of the ‘museum of contemplation’ – Zumthor’s Kolumba. In one gaze, we embrace layers of two thousand years of history: a Roman house with added Frankish apse, a Carolingian church/hall from the 9th century, a three-aisled Romanic church from the 11th century which was being added to until the 13th century and finally, the remains of the five-aisled Gothic Church of St. Kolumba from 1500, whose perimeter determines that of the new museum building.