The site was originally occupied by the romanesque Church of St. Kolumba, which was destroyed in World War II and replaced in 1950 by a Gottfried Böhm chapel nicknamed the "Madonna of the Ruins".
[4] The sixteen exhibition rooms possess varying qualities with regard to incoming daylight, size, proportion, and pathways.
The work on the project yielded the following reduction: light gray brick walls (Kolumba stones) and clay plaster, flooring made of Jura limestone, terrazzo, and mortar, ceilings made of a poured mortar shell, window frames, doors, casings and fittings of steel, wall paneling and furniture of wood, textiles and leather, curtains of leather and silk.
[5] The collection includes paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, decorative art and religious icons from Late Antiquity to the present.
[6] Apart from a few works on permanent display, the presentation features a regularly changing selection of the museum's holdings.