FUNDACIÓN COLEGIO Nª Sª DE LA ANTIGUA.

On December 19 in Monforte there was a lot of wind as in the whole region. La Voz de Galicia informed that day that Monforte was one of the towns most affected by Elsa. According to the newspaper, the rains and wind generated 112 more than a thousand incidents on the telephone and after the city of Lugo, the one in Monforte was the second one that generated the most calls.

These weather incidents affected the building of the College of the Cardinal. In fact the strong gusts of wind ended up breaking one of the granite balls that top each of the towers, specifically the one on the left. Apparently and as investigated the stone ball should already have a crack that between rain and ice subtracted strength from it. When blowing a continuous wind and with so much intensity the iron cross that finished off the set would vibrate until said tapping did the rest. The ball broke and the cross that apparently is still in the tower was lost.

This incident will be communicated to the corresponding Department of Heritage of the Xunta for your information.

Hopefully this architectural element can be replaced soon and return equality to the twin towers of our building.

The board of San Juan Bautista, recently restored, has been installed in the Pinacoteca. This table of S. XVI, is painted in oil, and is of a very good quality. We add here an already published photo of the restoration in addition to others at the time of being hung in the Pinacoteca, where we hope that soon it can be seen in all its splendor with a new and more modern lighting.

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Rosa Ana Guerra Pestonit, in her work, with the same title as this entry, refers us to the following:

“During some work of lifting the vaults of the cloister, a fortuitous circumstance caused me to discover in one of its walls (figure 1) the traces of what turned out to be a second montea of its vaults. Surprisingly, it had gone unnoticed until now, despite being located in a busy place and not listed in any of the sources consulted. This is a drawing executed with red pigment, possibly almagre, on the masonry wall corresponding to the first vault adjacent to the entrance from the goal. 5 The drawing (figure 2) represents the development of an eighth of the edge vault corner, along with the elevation of the half of the arch form that generates it. The described vault is regular, square, is executed in stonework and is decorated with a simple molding. It shows the distribution of the segments in the arch, their correspondence with the courses of the vault and the squares of the container volumes of these courses. Dovelas and rows appear numbered in three places. On the development the exploded view and the moldings are restated. As a curiosity, a double line of moldings appears on the mountain, which in the execution was simplified by eliminating the interior molding (figure 3). ”

This article entitled NEW MONTEA OF A DOME IN THE COLLEGE OF THE CARDENAL DE MONFORTE DE LEMOS, has become obsolete when a third montea appears on the walls of the cloister, a finding that soon we will provide information.

In her study entitled “The effects of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 on the monumental heritage of Galicia”, her author Dª Begoña Ces Fernández two gives the following news story of the difficulties that were encountered in the construction of the College of the Cardinal:

“But the works had to continue throughout the seventeenth century, since the master Simón de Mosteiro worked in 1620 in the” front room that is now being done “but left the works in November 1622 because he lacked the school of funds to complete them ( Bonet Correa, 1984: 181-182) and among the documents kept in the Archive of the College, are mentioned some provisions of the Royal Court, dated April 14, 1625, January 5, of the effects of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 on the monumental heritage of Galicia 1653 and August 22 of the same year so that the timber needed was sold to the College and it was not prevented from passing the carts of stone through the accustomed sites.

The monks have repeatedly come to the Royal Audience to request their intervention. In 1625 the difficulty was that some laborers were preventing the passage of the stone chariots for the work of the church by the exits of their houses and fields, which meant that works were still being carried out in the temple after their consecration. In 1653 the problem had arisen because the College needed much wood to proceed with the enlargements they were making “for the increase of the generals in the said school for the public studies there and for the necessity of the subjects attending the said College” and the neighbors no longer wanted to sell it. The work they refer to is a bedroom in the north-facing cloister, from which the walls were already made but lacking beams and wood due to the difficulty of finding who was selling them. “

There is sufficient documentation on which Mr. Cardeal Rodrigo de Castro “in order to state all the architectural features as more limbs had to be constructed or building specifying that the dimensions should be included more“ measures second Vignola insignia not seu book of five orders of architecture ”193 and, in addition,

• “All members (architectural elements) and ornaments within the temple (…) must be of Corinthian order” specifying, with thoroughness, all the details to which the different architectural elements of the igrexa construction should be added ( pilasters, entablamento, arches, vaults, scallops, xanelas do cruziro, dome, ships laterais, choir, portas, …) as well as
  • at the quality of two materials to undertake (pedro berroqueña, and say granite, ben carved in everything or that does not properly walls), two decorative elements (balusters, pyramids and booms, …) and “propaganda” (shields) and, mesmo, it was stipulated that or official who started the work should finish it off if he could transfer it to another official, yet there will be several mestres of works that will intervene in construction (Irmáns Fatón, Simón de Mosteiro, …).

 Data two that could be deduced that, perhaps, or Cardeal desxes facer unha replica, even that on a smaller scale, do Escorial de aí or emprego do novo Escurialense ou Herreriano style that Felipe II, after or Council of Trento, imputes in Spain, and that can be defined as a faithful Spanish mannerism to the most pure principles of classicism and that seem to be as much or as Cardeal itself, among its six books there were some of art, such as works, Simón de Mosteiro, xa that a preserved document did not convince monfortino das Clarisas recolle that among those su pertenzas there were “outra pictures two temples of Rome (…) gornecidos en coiro”.

It seems obvious, pois, that either Cardeal wanted to record proof for subsequent personal greatness but, likewise, it gives Grandeza do territory or solar co that was identified and that it was or two six ancestors by isole that to work of Colexio , or mesmo that El Escorial, is unparalleled at any time.

There are events that are surprising, pleasant, curious…. Today from our WEB we want to share one of them. Days ago we received a subscription to our “Circle of Patrons” program from the United States. Our surprise was very great and we are very honored to know that the subscriber is a whole family and that of this family the father is descended in the ninth generation of D. Francisco de Moure and the children are therefore the tenth generation.

In the photos, the three children of this family: Grace, Lucas and Diego, are with one of the most significant works of his great-great-great grandfather, Mr. Francisco de Moure. This is the “Knight Orante of Santa María de Beade“, currently in the provincial museum of Orense.

We appreciate your trust in our Foundation.

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Yesterday, November 14, the exhibition entitled “Galicia a world story” was inaugurated in which two pieces of our Foundation are exhibited. The inauguration was carried out by the Commissioner of the Exhibition D. Manuel Gago and finished off the interventions D. Alberto Núñez Feijoo.

The two programmed pieces are Sta Catalina one of the five works of Andrea del Sarto that are exhibited in our gallery and the Final Judgment of Giovani Bernardino Azzolino.

Witness and present at the opening of the exhibition I attached some photos of the installation of our works.

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On the occasion of the next exhibition at the Gaias Museum in Santiago de Compostela, “Galicia, a non-world story”, two of the paintings in our collection come out to be part of this exhibition.

Last week they were picked up and packed for transport to Santiago de Compostela.

The exhibition that under the name of “Galicia, a non-world story” aims to warm up engines for the events of Xacobeo 2021.

The selected works have been Sta Catalina by Andrea del Sarto and The Last Judgment by Giovani Bernardino Azzolino

Van der Goes’s copy of the Adoration of the Magi, which had been programmed initially was subsequently discarded for size and technical reasons.

We wish great success to the show.

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Tolosa, Juan de. Salamanca, 1548 – Monforte de Lemos (Lugo), 1598. Jesuit (SI), rigger, architect.
He had an artisan bonding in his family, finding himself related (Gutiérrez de Ceballos does not dare to specify if they were father and son or even brothers) with the rigger of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Pedro de Tolosa, a teacher who introduced the influence of that Filipino work in the architectural style of the Valladolid area.

Juan could have worked with him, even before his entry into the Society of Jesus, in the city of Salamanca, in November 1572. He should not be the only member of his family who entered this religious institute, having followed him his brother Esteban, nineteen years younger than him. However, his first job as a Jesuit was that of a cook, to be linked a little later to that of carpenter and assembler.

He works in Monforte instead of Andrés Ruiz, who was absent from the factory repeatedly (probably due to the completion of the Lugo Seminary), named Jesuit Tolosa in 1593, master teacher of the works of the College. Tolosa will be the one who transforms the idea into matter from 1593, directing a large number of construction and stonework teachers. Although Ruiz returns to the factory and signs the traces of the annexes to the facade in June 1594 at the request of the Cardinal, who was from July to November of that same year in Monforte de Lemos, exactly this was not carried out but instead they modified the additions based on a new trace that responds to the Universal Trace that Tolosa will propose to the Cardinal, and that will lead to modifying the entire planimetric system to bring new meaning and symbolism to the College.
That there was a radical change between what was initially projected by Ruiz and what Tolosa materialized, is evident in the “Appraisal of the work and clauses for the continuation of the Monforte de Lemos College” that Tolosa himself performs in 1598, in which he says : “The trace in which they were finished was not saved, but everything should be removed and returned to another form.” Both what has been done so far and what has yet to be done have been modified, and this will be broken down throughout the work.
The plague arrived in Monforte in 1599, greatly reducing both the operators’ companies and the religious community, Tolosa being one of its victims.

We have included in our WEB menu an access to our virtual store. For now there is nothing more for sale than Father Esteban’s book, 2nd Edition. Soon we will sell some souvenir of the College. From that menu you will have access to the store and the cart.

Therefore, if you want a copy of Fr. Esteban’s book entitled “COLEGIO DE Nª Sª DE LA ANTIGUA” you can BUY it through our store and we will send it to you shortly.

This option will be good for alumni and other people interested in our school, its history, its building … and who do not live in Monforte.