FUNDACIÓN COLEGIO Nª Sª DE LA ANTIGUA.

This week the complicated works of relocation of the stones of the vault of the presbytery of the church, damaged in the earthquake of 1755 and with the consequent deterioration of the subsequent 266 years, have been completed.

Now the tasks that remain are grouting cracks and cleaning, in addition to installing the shields of the high altarpiece that were dismantled to allow work on the vault and rear arch. Then he will have to give a new cleaning to the entire altarpiece. We hope that we will soon be able to return worship to the church, which is its legitimate function.

To illustrate what has been said, I put some images of the state of the wall and vaults before the intervention and some of how the restored arches are becoming.

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These days we have installed in the Pinacoteca the Funeral Inscription of the Cardinal after a restoration in which above all the original date has been returned since by indicating the date of the death of the Cardinal (MDC), 1600, part of the date of the writing and installation of the same (MDCCCXLIX) 1849.

The Latin text says:

Emm. ac. Rev. D.D. Roderichus á Castro S. R. E. Presbyter Cardenalis, Archiepiscopus Hispallensis: progenie Magnus, Virtutibus Maximus, meritis optimus: pauperum Parens, literarum amplisimus Protector, hujusce Basilica ac scientiarum scollae munificentisimus Fundator et Largitor, plenus dierum dillectus Deo et hominibus quuescit in pace.
Anima migravitim coelum cinera vero hic sunt. Anno Domini MDCCCXLIX

The Spanish translation:

Most Eminent and Reverend DD. Rodrigo de Castro S.E.R. Cardinal Priest, Archbishop of Seville; of great lineage, the greatest in virtues, the best in merits, father of the poor, very magnificent protector of letters, very generous founder and donor of this Basilica and of the school of sciences, rich in days, loved by God and for men, rest in peace.
His soul went up to heaven, but his ashes are here deposited. Year of the Lord 1849

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These days and taking advantage of the restoration works of the church, the seventeenth-century grille of the Chapel of the Relics has been restored. This grille made of forging and with the different pieces joined only by riveting, without any welding, was quite deteriorated because the setting of the bars that made it up had given way, the bars were off the hook and in serious danger of dismantling due to lack of the required solidity. in such unions.

The company Forja de Chago, specialized in the restoration of ancient iron elements, -they have just restored all the bars of the Santiago Cathedral-, was the company appointed to restore consistency and functionality to our bars, something that has been done with the same old techniques, without the use of any modern welding.

It has been discovered that in the past the bars had golden elements, due to the remains of gold and polychrome.

They have even restored the old lock, the original had not worked for more than a century, making new keys, those of half a kilo in pure wrought iron.

With some photos we illustrate the renovation of the fence, which has been like new.

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At the initiative of the CNSdlA Foundation, its appearance documented in three photos from the early twentieth or late nineteenth century will be returned to the well of the main cloister. Apparently the two stone pillars that can be seen on both sides of the well supported a wrought iron arch from which the pulley hung to raise the water with a cauldron At some point, said hardware disappeared, leaving the well soulless and with the appearance of incompleteness.

The Herrería de Chago, in Santiago de Compostela, which has just restored the 17th century bars of the Chapel of the Relics, is going to be in charge of making this ironwork. We illustrate this news with a current photo of the state of the Main Cloister in which you can see the situation of the well and photos from the early 20th century where you can see the hardware that is the object of this news.

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After placing a provisional scaffolding to cover the main altarpiece of the Church, it has been dismantled to make way for another more robust scaffolding that will be in charge of supporting the entire vault of the presbytery in order to be able to reposition the stones of the same that were in danger of falling.

With some photos we illustrate the state of the works today.

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For a few days we have been observing the increase in visits to our WEB, We can deduce that interest is growing in what the College of the Cardinal can offer to tourism and hence the consultation of our WEB page, from which we offer the visits taken and the countries of origin these days, perhaps preparing a summer visit to Monforte and its magnificent tourist offer: landscape, oenological, gastronomic and cultural. We can see that inland tourism is clearly taking hold

In the Foundation Archive, we can find a lot of documentation from the 16th and subsequent centuries. Among them there is one that attracts attention, it is a document of sale of a vineyard dated October 22, 1576, which was sold for seventy ducats. The curious thing about this deed is the care of the presentation that the “Escribano” (notary) who vouched for it. He drew a capital letter E, capitular, in pen and ink and in it he put the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian or (S. Bastiano) as the same scribe recorded in the upper part of the letter E.

The letter is also surprising that despite being already in the midst of a renaissance, it keeps much of the Gothic letter used until the middle of the previous century.

We illustrate this entry of our WEB page with a photo of the capitular and first lines of said document and a photo of two ducats or doubloon, of the time.

A few days ago a surprising and culturally very interesting piece was added to the Archaeological collection of the Foundation that we invite you to know, if only through the information in the link of this entry. The Roman world is becoming more and more known to us and its encounter with some of the pre-Roman cultures generated visions of things, of the world, of man that today can surprise us. We invite you to access from this link the information that we offer to visitors to our exhibition through a QR code.

As we know, Simón de Monasterio committed to the contractual obligation to continue and finish the “third” part of the Church, that is, the flat head with which the Church is finished, which we believe had to be finished before 1613, since this year the dome and one of the two towers were finished, missing the other that was about to be finished.

The technical expertise shown by Simón de Monasterio in terms of covering the space by means of barrel vaults and cupola will be highlighted later in the contract for another Jesuit work, this time it is the Clergy of Salamanca; in one of his clauses “it was foreseen that the Monastery would raise the vaults and the dome of the temple, at which point he had demonstrated his expertise during the construction of the same elements in the Church of the College of Monforte.”

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As we see the good work of Simón de Monasterio and the magnificent result of his work in Monforte were shown for another of the great Spanish monuments of Jesuit trace, whose works began in 1617 under the protection of Margarita de Austria, wife of Felipe III, at to appear as an act of reparation to the order for the prison suffered by its founder, Ignacio de Loyola, by the Inquisition in the mocha tower of the Cathedral of Salamanca. Completing in 1754.

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