The Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport of the Regional Government of Castilla y León, Gonzalo Santonja Gómez, and the President of the Fundación Iberdrola España, Fernando García Sánchez, visited the church of San Martín de Tours this morning to inaugurate and check in situ the result of the latest work carried out in the building as part of the Atlantic Romanesque plan, promoted by both entities.
During their visit they were accompanied by, among others, the president of the Santa María la Real Foundation, Ignacio Fernández Sobrino, and the director of the Iberdrola Spain Foundation, Ramón Castresana. In this case, the intervention has focused on the restoration and lighting of the interior of the church, allowing it to be adapted to the requirements of a space located in the heart of a historic city, which combines its liturgical use with the artistic and historical interest it arouses among the many visitors who pass through its doors every day. The work consisted of recovering the original mortars and finishes.
Different phases of intervention
During the visit to the church, it was also pointed out that the intervention process has been going on for several years. In successive phases, it has been possible, on the one hand, to correct the structural problems of the building; on the other, to set up an exhibition route and, finally, to refurbish the interior of the church.
The existing deformations in the pillars, arches and vaults of the three naves of the building, the result of the construction itself and of different modifications throughout its history, justified a complete study of its construction sequence, which included an analysis of the evolution of its architecture, undertaken by several multidisciplinary teams.
A precision survey was also carried out, which was key to understanding the structural behaviour of the temple and which confirmed that the loads supported by the Romanesque walls of the building were unbalanced and needed to be redistributed in order to improve the structural safety margin. The work focused on the roof of the church, modifying its support points to better distribute its weight on the Romanesque walls.
This action was added to other emergency interventions, such as those carried out in the first section of the Gospel nave, above the so-called Puerta del Obispo (Bishop's Gate), which concentrated most of the damage. Similarly, the access through the north door of the church was restored and an information and visitor reception point was set up. At the same time, the access to the Chapel of Carmen, where a rich Romanesque doorway with original polychromy is preserved, was improved and the lighting was made more in keeping with the whole and more efficient.
Monitoring
In addition to the intervention itself, in order to know the real state of the building, the temple was incorporated into the Monitoring System (MHS), developed by the Santa María la Real Foundation, and temperature and humidity sensors were installed in very specific points of the building. At the same time, structural movements, both static and dynamic, were monitored by installing an accelerometer and clinometers on the north and south walls. The joint analysis of all these variables made it possible to understand the evolution of the degradation process, to outline its causes and, most importantly, to propose the most appropriate solution for each pathology.
