Photo: Image of the sculpture of St. Joseph with child before being restored.
In a few days, the sculptures of the altarpieces of the church of Santa María de Ozain La Coruña, will return to their place of origin after having been restored by GRANDA.
They are ten sculptures representing Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, St. Joseph with child, St. Roch, St. John the Baptist, St. Anthony, Our Lady of the Assumption, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sacred Heart of Mary and two angels. All the figures date back to the 19th and 20th centuriesby an anonymous author, and have been made in oil polychrome wood and polychrome plaster.
The figures that decorate the three altarpieces of the church (the altarpiece of the Immaculate Virgin, the altarpiece of the Sorrowful Virgin and the altarpiece of Our Lady of the Assumption) presented cracks and fissures in the substrateThe paintings were also covered by a thick layer of surface dirt that needed to be cleaned and which had been produced by the use of a thick layer of dirt that had been removed from the surface of the painting. In addition, they were covered by a thick layer of surface dirt that needed to be cleaned and had been produced loss of brightness of some pieces, such as the crown of Our Lady of the Conception, due to dirt and oxidation of the metal.
The restoration of the sculptures coincides with the 150th anniversary of the church. It was on February 2, 1863 when the parish of Monelos inaugurated the new church of Santa María de Oza. The temple had to be rebuilt in 1940 after it was destroyed by flames in 1936.
The rehabilitation of the temple led to the incorporation of a part of marble in its new altarpiece, in addition to a series of pieces that were brought from the Gemírez Palace and placed by the artist Jorge Juan, according to the parish priest, Mr. José Antonio Fidalgo. (Source: www.lavozdegalicia.es)
