This year, 2025, brings us an event to celebrate, of a cultural nature, and of which we should all be recognized and proud. It is a birthday. Nothing less than the 400 years that this year 2025 will mark the birth of the magnificent altarpiece of the Church of Nª Sª de la Antigua. Father Esteban, in his book about the College, tells us how our altarpiece was born and the conditions that were established with Moure for its realization. He expressed it like this:
“As for the altarpiece, it was agreed, in a public deed of November 16, 1625, between the Rector of the College, Father Juan Antonio Velázquez, and the Galician sculptor Francisco Moure, who had previously made the choir stalls of the Monastery of Meira, several altars and images for the Monastery of Samos and the choir of the Cathedral of Lugo. The idea and the sketch of how it was to be done were given to him by Father Juan Antonio Velázquez himself.
The following conditions are established in said contract: 1°) he would fill the entire space at the back; 2°) he would work within the College; 3°) he would be helped by six good officials; 4°) he would work continuously, not being able to miss more than three months, until the work was finished and, for each day that he missed, in addition to the three months, he would lose two ducats; 5°) the officials would be paid four reales at the end of the week. Moure would be paid 270 ducats a year and, when the work was finished, a sculptor on behalf of Moure and another on behalf of the College would value the altarpiece and, if it is worth more than what they had been paid during the years worked, they would pay him and, if it is worth less, Moure would pay the College the difference. The College would provide all the wood, framing and glue….”

Don’t forget that we are collecting donations to restore the Cristo de Moure
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