•  I
• a · A  I
• Accesibility  I
• Map  I
• Search  I
• Staff directory

• ::  Iniciar sessió :: 

The Church of Santos Juanes is one of the emblematic sites of Valencian heritage due to its monumentality and strategic location in the heart of Valencia. Built according to Gothic canons, its Baroque transformation made it worthy of being declared a National Historic and Artistic Monument both for the paintings by Palomino - the largest surface area painted by the Cordovan master - and for the sculptural and ornamental intervention carried out by Bertesi and Aliprandi with the white lustre stuccoes of its sculptures and the gilding that make this church unique in València.

Since June 2021, a team from the Heritage Restoration Research Institute (IRP) and the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), led by the emeritus professor of the UPV, Prof. Dr Pilar Roig, has been working day by day to recover its ornamental beauty, in a project funded by the Hortensia Herrero Foundation, which is coordinated by the architect Carlos Campos and which will be completed by the end of 2025.

"Santos Juanes is going to surprise us all. After that terrible fire of 1936, we recovered part of Palomino's original, thanks to our work, the new technologies, and the coordination of an interdisciplinary team, which already brought us pleasant surprises. We have recovered the original colour, Palomino's imprint, and history during the two phases already finished. It is impressive because pigments are still there and surprise us. We only have to look up to appreciate its enrichment", emphasised Pilar Roig during a visit to the restoration site this morning.

As the UPV professor explained, the Gudiol family ripped out the preserved fragments of paint from 2/3 of the vault and the presbytery of the Santos Juanes and took them to Barcelona to place them on plywood panels. "The paintings of the presbytery never returned to Valencia, and the rest were placed on 90 panels in the vault painted by Palomino. Thirty-five of them have already been restored. In addition, the ornamentation, gilded sculptures, and ovals of a third of the interior perimeter of the church have also been restored", added José Luis Regidor, researcher of the Heritage Restoration Institute of the UPV and head of the restoration.

During the restoration process, the team from the Universitat Politècnica de València discovered inscriptions on the surface of the vault under the panels and even on the back of some of them so that it has been possible to document the date of 1965 as the end of the intervention of the Gudiol brothers, as well as the presence of a team of at least 15 assistants who left their names written on the vault. In addition, the UPV team has discovered fragments of original paint behind some of the panels.

Ultrasound, bio-cleaning and digital image processing

During the restoration process, the UPV team applies different technologies, such as digital image treatment, bio-cleaning with bacteria trained for the restoration of the pieces of art and ultrasound and laser photo-ablation that allow action to be taken on those parts most affected by the passing of time. The research results derived from this project have been published in different volumes of Archivo Arte Valenciano of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos. These works have been signed by Pilar Roig, Jose Luis Regidor, Pilar Soriano, Julia Osca, Iris Hernandez, Xavi Más and Valeria Marcenac.

Two lines of ornamental intervention

The project is being carried out with two parallel lines of ornamental intervention: on the one hand, the restoration of the paintings on the vault and, on the other, the restoration of the sculptures, stuccoes and gilding of the Baroque ornamentation of the walls and chapels.

The intervention on the paintings of the vault involves acting in situ by dismantling the existing panels and transferring them to the researcher's restoration site at the Research Institute of Heritage Restoration of the UPV, where the restoration process is carried out with the recovery of the fragments of the original painting.

"Once they have been placed on new panels made specifically for this purpose, adapted to the curvature of the vault, they are taken back to the vault to be reinstalled in the place where they belong, finishing the process with the pictorial reconstruction of the missing pieces using the transfer of the printed digital image", explained José Luis Regidor.

Multidisciplinary team

The project brings together a large multidisciplinary team from fields as diverse as topographic engineering - for the georeferencing work; telecommunications - for the application of ultrasound technology; industrial engineering - for the environmental control of the works; architects for quality control and certifications; documentalists, physical and chemical specialists, as well as biologists specialised in cleaning with bacteria, restorers of sculpture, gilding, stucco, and mural painting, and art historians.

"The project brings together around thirty specialists working in a fully coordinated manner. This makes it possible to meet the planned expectations, even though the restoration is very complex. I would also stress that we are acting by the premises established at the European level on sustainability in heritage conservation, as there are less than 10 years left to achieve the sustainable development goals proposed in the 2030 Agenda signed by the member states of the United Nations. For this reason, our intervention stands out for our respect for the environment and the use of harmless products, bearing in mind the zero kilometres, whenever possible", emphasised Pilar Roig.

News UPV TV
Download File