Yuanzhongdu Museum

Yuanzhongdu Museum

The Yuanzhongdu Museum is located north of Nanshan Road and east of Chaha’er Street in Zhangbei County, covering a total area of 69 mu with a construction area of 9,202.68 square meters. The museum project was built with an investment of 80 million yuan from the Zhangbei County government’s finances. The architectural design concept emphasizes the characteristics of “grandeur, fragmentation, and cognition,” with “memory of the ruins” as its main theme. The structural design is inspired by the layout of the Yuanzhongdu, consisting of three layers—outer city, imperial city, and palace city—arranged in a “回” (square within a square) pattern. The form design seeks to capture the unique imagery of a capital ruin by balancing grandeur and fragmentation, integrating broken cavities and fragments into the building. The spatial design reflects a complex of palaces, composed of enclosed courtyards at different levels, utilizing space, light, texture, and other elements in harmony with the exhibition content to create a powerful immersive experience for visitors.

The museum consists of a prelude hall, four main exhibition halls, and a small prelude hall for the third section, totaling six exhibition spaces. The Yuanzhongdu Museum is the first thematic museum in China dedicated to Mongol-Yuan history. In addition to condensing the once-magnificent and imposing Yuanzhongdu into the museum, it also showcases the rise and fall of the Yuan Dynasty, carrying an enduring cultural legacy. It effectively displays the ruins and relics of Yuanzhongdu, promotes and disseminates Mongol-Yuan historical culture, provides a platform for the storage and research of artifacts unearthed from the Yuanzhongdu site, and creates better conditions for accelerating the process of nominating Yuanzhongdu as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Further reading:

· National Second-Class Museum of China