The MAXXI museum in Rome unveiled its first exhibits Thursday and will open to the public on Sunday. (Pier Paolo Cito/Associated Press)

The doors to a new massive contemporary arts and architecture museum in Rome were opened to the media on Thursday, ahead of the official public opening Sunday.

The $225-million US MAXXI museum, designed by award-winning Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, sits on the grounds of a former military barracks in the city's historic centre.

It marks a departure for the city, which is more known for Baroque and ancient architecture.

Hadid, the first woman to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004, says her design for the 88,500 square-foot building incorporates "the idea of connecting between the old and the new."

The museum kicked off a three-day opening extravaganza on Thursday with the unveiling of its first exhibits to media. An invite-only party for 5,000 guests will follow on Friday, and then on Sunday, the museum will open to the public.

The museum building features intricate steel stairways, curving cement walls, floor-to-ceiling windows and interconnected pathways. MAXXI, which was originally supposed to open in 2005, also has libraries, an auditorium and workshop spaces.

Hadid says she took into account the special qualities of Rome, which she visited for the first time as a child in the 1960s.

"Rome has fantastic light," Hadid said. "The idea of this project is about layering and bringing in light to the space so that you have a naturally lit space — and to give the curators tremendous freedom in the way they can organize exhibits."

The inaugural exhibits are a mix of the old and the new.

The Space exhibit features art works by Anish Kapoor and Francesco Vezzosi, which is housed along with a retrospective of pieces by Gino De Dominicis, an Italian artist who died a decade ago.

There are also eight video works by new Turkish artist Kutlug Ataman.

With files from The Associated Press