The project “Save the photos: UPV laboratory“The project, launched in November 2024 by the student body of theFaculty of Fine Arts of thePolytechnic University of Valencia (UPV)The project, which was launched in October of the same year, focuses on the recovery and conservation of family photographs damaged by the floods in more than 75 Valencian towns. After two years of work, Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain were able to visit the project at the Faculty’s facilities on January 14, 2026.
A project that is part of the initiatives promoted a few days after the DANA by the Xarxa d’Universitats Públiques Valencianes per a la Cultura, in collaboration with the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the Spanish Conservation Group (GE-IIC) and the Museu Valencià d’Etnologia (L’ETNO).
The UPV proposal, led by the University Institute of Heritage Restoration, the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage of the Universitat Politècnica de València, arose when students who volunteered in the affected areas found abandoned family albums among the debris: “At that moment they thought of helping with what they had been training for, the intervention and conservation of photographs”, as explained by the project coordinators, Esther Nebot Díaz, Pilar Soriano Sancho and Pedro Vicente-Mullor.
During the visit, Don Felipe and Doña Letizia toured the laboratories and saw firsthand the work developed over this time by more than 200 people, which has allowed to recover about 340,000 images belonging to about 400 families. In this action have participated conservation and restoration professionals, specialists in photography, documentation and digitization, expert staff in artificial intelligence, students and volunteers, all involved in a collective action of heritage rescue. The common goal was to save the memories of the mud and recover the memories and experiences behind each of the photographs that arrived at the laboratories of the Faculty. On this occasion, Their Majesties also talked with some of the families who have already been able to collect their memories, who told them of the deep emotional significance of rescuing an essential part of their family memory.
