Restoration disaster in Spain: A “masked restorer” to blame?
Spain, full of historical buildings, is struggling with restoration disasters.
The Church of Santa María del Castillo in the village of Castronuño, in Valladolid, is one of the works that got into trouble with the restoration.
In November, Mayor Enrique Seoane noticed something scandalously wrong with the nearly 750-year-old church.
While looking at a photo taken by a neighbor, Seoane saw cement pouring into the arch in one corner of the church. This was a very unprofessional job to prevent the east wing of the church from collapsing.
“A masked restorer”
The news spread in Spain after the mayor said the work was done by an unidentified “masked restorer”. The people remembered the restoration disasters in their region.
The most famous of these examples is the 2012 intervention on the centuries-old drawing of Jesus on the wall of a church in Borja. A parishioner, Cecilia Giménez, in her 80s, tried to fix the spilled paint, which later became famous with the names “Monkey Christ” and “Potato Jesus”. The church where the drawing was found was flooded with tourists.
In June 2020, a copy of the 17th century artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo’s painting Immaculate Conception was given to a furniture restorer for 1200 euros to be fixed, and the result was disastrous.
At the time of the disaster at the church in Castronuño, the statue in another part of the country also shook the agenda.
Sí, ha vuelto a ocurrir. #Palencia tiene ya su propio #eccehomo Sospecho que la restauradora igual era pro #Trump 🤦🏻♂️ y se ha dejado llevar por la emoción de estos días en las #EleccionesEEUU pic.twitter.com/sXS0H2AJxg
— Aitor Loizaga (@aitorloizaga) November 10, 2020
The sculpture on the exterior of the architectural structure built in 1923 in the city of Palencia was compared to the former US President Donald Trump after the restoration.
“You know what the real scandal is?”
The Church of Santa María del Castillo, built in the 1250s, also suffered from unsuccessful restoration work. On the other hand, the cement poured into the historical arch is not new.
A villager examining an old book about churches in the area found that cement was also in the arch in 1999. Therefore, it is very difficult to find the person who did the work.
The scandal in the church is not limited to this: A metal pipe through which the electrical cables in the building pass, wire mesh and metal rods to protect the window… The person or persons behind them remain a mystery.
Although the villagers appealed to the authorities to prevent the demolition of the neglected church, no response has been received so far. “Cement is a scandal. Yes, it’s ugly. But do you know what the real scandal is? The real scandal is the authorities who let the church stay that way,” said Mar Villarroel, a local resident.
In the news of the New York Times, it was written that the walls of the church had leaked for years and the inside looked like a cave. The 18th century frescoes were found to be unrecoverable except for one.
According to the news, one of the reasons for the neglect of the church is the decrease in the population in the village. Because it is thought that there is no one left to look after the church.
Mayor Seoane hopes that the money needed to repair the church will be raised once attention is drawn after announcing a “restorer in a mask”.
New York Times, CNN International
