Ancient Rome gets a modern building

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: After years of controversy, Rome unveiled the first modern building to rise in its ancient centre since dictator Benito Mussolini ruled Italy more than half a century ago.

The steel, glass and marble Ara Pacis museum, designed by renowned US architect Richard Meier, has lit Roman passions with one critic likening it to a giant petrol station.

But Meier informed at the gala opening, “To see it filled with people today is a great joy.” Meier’s building — the first to be erected in Rome since the 1930s — was built to house the Ara Pacis, a 2,000-year-old altar commissioned by Roman Emperor Augustus to commemorate the pacification of what is today France and Spain. The American has been struggling to build the museum for more than a decade amid budget squabbles and street protests.

A dozen protesters outside the museum’s entrance during the opening handed out flyers decrying it as an “eyesore”.

“Any work of architecture that has with it some discussion, some polemic, I think is good. It shows people are involved,” Meier said, after telling Rome’s centre-left mayor Walter Veltroni he hoped that he won a second term.

He has staged free pop concerts at the Colosseum, introduced wireless hotspots to the lush Villa Borghese and pioneered all night shop opening as well as welcoming some of the world’s greatest contemporary architects.