Official visit to the restoration of Our Lady of Fernandiel

The works of conservation-restoration that GRANDA is carrying out on the mural paintings of the Fernandiel Chapelin the Zamoran town of La Muga de Sayago, received yesterday the official visit of the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Junta de Castilla y León, Javier Ortega. The event was also attended by the president of the Iberdrola Spain Foundation, Fernando García, the mayoress of Muga, María Dora Herrero, and, on behalf of GRANDAits director, Jaime Arellano.

Our intervention is focused on the set of mural paintings of the chapel, made by several groups of painters around the sixteenth century. They have the particularity of being the largest and best preserved of a series of mural paintings of a more or less popular character that are spread throughout this region and the bordering territories of Salamanca and Portugal.

The Fernandiel mural paintings are made on lime and sand mortar and executed mostly dry, by egg tempera or casein, without ruling out a possible fresco work as a base. They showed generalized dirt, as well as cracks due to structural movements of the building and material losses, among other damages. Prior to the intervention, analysis and information gathering were carried out.

One of the most outstanding aspects has been the recovery of the pictorial altarpiece of the front wall, which was almost completely hidden by a later wooden altarpiece.

The conservation of these unique paintings is part of the Atlantic Romanesque Plan.a cross-border cooperation initiative for the preservation of cultural heritage.