The culture and tourism representative, Javier Ortega Álvarez, has presented today along with the Fundación Iberdrola España’s president, Fernando García Sánchez, and Palencia’s bishop, Manuel Herrero, the restoration plan for the main altarpiece of Villarmentero de Campos, Palencia.

The culture and tourism representative, Javier Ortega, has highlighted in his intervention the importance of public-private collaboration and has thanked the Fundación Iberdrola for its involvement in many restoration and revaluation programs for Castilla y Leon’s cultural heritage.

The intervention focus is the correct preservation of the altarpiece, ensuring its stability and endurance through time, as well as the recovery of its aesthetic and artistic values. For that purpose, Iberdrola’s Foundation in Spain has performed the rehabilitation of the twelve statues of the main altarpiece, which entailed a 25,000 euros funding and, at the same time, the in situ restoration of the painting and architecture of the altarpiece by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, with a 112,000 euros founding from the Junta.

The main work performed has entailed the dismantling of the altarpiece, the adequacy of the main facade and the workbench, restorative and structural strengthening woodwork, settling and cleaning treatments for the rigs and polychromes, chromatic restoration, and the assembly of the altarpiece with the relocation of its statues. This intervention has allowed deepening the knowledge of the artistic and building techniques used by the artists who created the altarpiece.

Javier Ortega has highlighted the importance of this project by dedicating himself to the study, investigation, preservation, and restoration of the shrine and has reminded how it exemplifies the way the Ministry of Culture and Tourism works; encouraging a collaborative and sustainable model of our cultural heritage that brings to the table the consideration for its assets as a resource for territorial and social development,

Fernando García has remarked on the Fundación Iberdrola España’s commitment to culture as one more example of its support towards the development, restoration, and preservation of the historical-artistic heritage of the communities it works with. He has also highlighted the ambitious project of restoration and preservation of the whole Romanic art in both Spain and Portugal – Plan Románico Atlántico – a collaborative cross-border project developed with the Junta de Castilla y León and Portugal’s State Secretary of Culture, which keeps improving the socio-economic growth of the territory by sharing its resources: its inhabitants, its natural environment, and its cultural heritage.

The restoration of this altarpiece gains importance this Jacobean Year. On the occasion of this celebration, in the years 2021 and 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has prepared an extensive schedule of activities that will go through several Jacobean locations of the Community to publicize the Santiago’s roads that crosses the nine provinces, with the help of a broad and varied program structured in three parts: Promotion, Development, and Funding, as ways to energize tourism and visitors reception.

During this Summer, Autumn, and all of 2022, Castilla y León will welcome concerts, dance recitals, and theatrical representations, and will foster conferences and conventions, that will not only seek the reactivation of tourism and pilgrimage, but also the revaluation and promotion of the municipalities that the Santiago’s road crosses.

The representative has shown his desire for this renovated shrine to become a new opportunity to attract tourism in the municipality and the whole Tierra de Campos region, rich in culture, that “undoubtedly brings an opportunity for local and territorial development”.