For the first time in more than 100 years, visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park beginning today will be able to view a rare cyclorama art installation as its creator intended.

The restored three-dimensional "Battle of Gettysburg'' cyclorama returns to public view today in a specially designed gallery in the new Museum and Visitor Center on the Civil War battlefield in Adams County. The National Park Service and The Gettysburg Foundation have planned an opening ceremony for 11 a.m. today, to be followed by lectures, battlefield tours and living history programs, concerts and other events through the weekend.

Created in 1884 by artist Paul Philippoteaux and a team of painters, the Cyclorama has been closed to the public since 2004 for a $12 million restoration project. It depicts the doomed charge of Confederate soldiers on the third day of the battle in July 1863 in which about 50,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed, wounded or captured.

The cyclorama, which had been extensively altered and damaged, features an oil painting that has been restored to its original length of 377 feet and height of 42 feet. It now hangs in the round and in a hyperbolic shape with dioramas and a viewing platform.

The battlefield's $103 million museum and visitor center opened in April at 1195 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg. For a schedule of events or more information, call 866-889-1243 or go to www.gettysburgfoundation.org or www.nps.gov/gett.