Last Monday, El Greco’s painting “Apparition of the Virgin to San Lorenzo” traveled to Zaragoza to take part in a magnificent exhibition organized by the Goya Museum, entitled “El Greco, the steps of a genius.” Sample in which there are a good number of paintings by the aforementioned author and all of them of a very high level.
This exhibition will last until the beginning of June, when the aforementioned work will return to Monforte.
These days the left side altarpiece of the church is being restored, which is currently dedicated to the Virgin of the Pious Schools. The state of the structure is much better than one would expect, but not the polychromes and the gilding. One curiosity that surprises us and tells us about the quality of the carver, lies in the inclusion of small animals in the plant ornaments, for example snails, little birds, etc. The polychromies are currently being consolidated before moving on to a reintegration of the damaged or lost parts.
We offer a couple of details of the animals included in the plant ornaments
The Minister for Culture of Galicia, Román Rodríguez, today visited the works of the church of the Colegio de la Compañía de Monforte. The part of the works corresponding to the interior of the Church, in the vault of the presbytery, was completed at the end of November. The church of Nª Sª de la Antigua is already open and in use by the locals who want to go to it. According to estimates, the works will continue at least until mid-February or early March.
At the rear of the church building, work has taken slightly longer than anticipated due to unfavorable weather conditions. The large crack in the back wall of the temple, whose origin is attributed to the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, has been sealed, a work that has already been done.
There is now the rehabilitation of the passage behind the church that had to be demolished to place the large scaffolding, which has been used, on the one hand, to access the roof of the head of the church, which has been renovated in the area between the two towers.
At the same time, the restoration of one of the lateral altarpieces of the transept has begun, specifically the left one.
Last Monday, November 29, in the incomparable setting of our Pinacoteca, the Agreement was signed between the Fundación Colegio Nª Sª de la Antigua and the Iberdrola Foundation, which will assume the cost of the total renovation of the lighting in our Church. Through this agreement, the IBERDOLA Foundation assumes, already approving in its board of trustees, the renovation of the lighting in the church, for an amount of € 90,000. The company designated by Iberdrola to carry out the intervention is the same one that illuminated the Prado Museum and has made the new lighting of the recently opened Santiago Cathedral, with a magnificent result. A Monitoring Commission will be created, which will have its first meeting at the end of January, and will be in charge of supervising the lighting project, later, once it has been defined, it will have to be authorized by the General Directorate of Heritage of the Xunta de Galicia .
The signing of the agreement was attended by local authorities, the Director of the Iberdrola Foundation, the Iberdrola Delegate in Galicia, the Government Delegate of the Xunta in Lugo and other prominent members of Monforte’s life and the press and radio media from Galician area.
• The replacement and renovation of the lighting in the church is one more example of Iberdrola’s commitment to Galicia, the preservation of the historical-artistic heritage of the region and the promotion of the social value of culture.
• The most advanced LED technology will be installed, which will reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
The managing director of the Nuestra Señora de la Antigua School Foundation, P. Javier Agudo and the director of the Iberdrola Spain Foundation, Ramón Castresana today signed the agreement in a ceremony that was also attended by the president of the Iberdrola Spain Foundation , Fernando García Sánchez; the mayor of Monforte de Lemos, José Tomé Roca and the director of the Galician Energy Institute, Juan Rodríguez Fernández-Arroyo.
The FCNSdlA and Iberdrola, through their foundation, are committed to developing an interior ornamental lighting project in their church. The replacement and renovation of the lighting in the church of the College. The initiative, which is part of the Iberdrola Illuminations Program, will have an investment of 90,000 euros to provide the church with new artistic lighting, which will enhance the architecture and artistic elements of the church.
Thanks to this agreement, the Iberdrola Spain Foundation will install the most advanced LED technology, which will reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, as well as minimize maintenance work.
After placing the stones in the vault of the presbytery and the removal of the large scaffolding that was erected for this purpose, the altarpiece by Francisco Moure is being cleaned again and all the wooden elements of the Church are disinsected. On December 5, the 2nd Sunday of Advent, worship will resume in the Church of Nª Sª de la Antigua. With two masses at 11:00 am and 12:00 pm
With some simple photos we illustrate the work that is being carried out these days, although the work abroad continues.
On Thursday October 23, and with the guidance of the architect responsible for the work, Mr. Manuel Freire, a former student of this school, we had two visits to the work of rehabilitation of the vault of the presbytery of the Church of Nª Sª de la Antigua de our Foundation.
The first visit was from the Board of Directors of the Lugo Surveyors Association. The second, in the afternoon of that day, students and professors of the Master of Rehabilitation of the University of A Coruña. Everyone was delighted by the impressiveness of the rehabilitation and its technical difficulty. Being a real luxury to be able to observe the work from the top of the scaffolding at 18 meters high with a perspective of the church impossible to see at other times.
The visit to the museum of both groups, led by the Director of the College, greatly contributed.
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.
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
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.
