The President of the Junta de Castilla y León, Juan Vicente Herrera and the President of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán have officially presented the restoration interventions of the church of San Pedro de la Nave and its surroundings in El Campillo (Zamora), in the scope of the Atlantic Romanesque Plan.
An integral intervention has been performed in San Pedro de la Nave, that has served not only for the restoration, but also to provide the church with a new management plan, guaranteeing also its preventive conservation.
In his intervention, the President of Iberdrola has mentioned that “All of this with several objectives: to guarantee an appropriate conservation of the church, but also to attract visitors, promote the tourism in Zamora and to serve as an economic stimulus to the entire city”
During the inauguration act, in which, among other personalities, the Consejera de Cultura y Turismo de la Junta de Castilla y León, Alicia García; the President of the Fundación Iberdrola, Manuel Marín; the Director Regional de Cultura do Norte de Portugal, Antonio Ponte; the Alcalde of San Pedro de la Nave, Braulio Prieto, and the bishop of Zamora, Gregorio Martínez have been present. Herrera and Galán have advanced with their intention to continue give continuity to the Atlantic Romanesque Intervention Plan.
Started in 2010, the Plan is an ambitious trans-border collaboration project of restoration and maintenance of a monumental ensemble of romanesque art in Spain and Portugal. It has turned into an example of public-private cooperation that has implied a close collaboration of the Junta de Castilla y León, through the Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, the Secretaría de Estado de Cultura de Portugal and the Fundación Iberdrola as promoters of an initiative that counts with the support of the Catholic Church of Portugal, as well as with the Spanish dioceses of Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Zamora and Astorga, with the objective of recovering the cultural and natural heritage, as well as performing an important work in social and economical invigoration.
In this sense, Ignacio Galán has assured that “these interventions have implied, on one hand, an important socio-economic impact - given that they have generated hundreds of work positions in different population areas - and, on the other hand, an environmental impact as well, by using efficient lighting systems based in the latest technologies, with a consumption 70% under the usual ones.”
The President of the Junta de Castilla y León, Juan Vicente Herrera, has highlighted that the restoration of San Pedro de la Nave is an example of the new strategies of management of the cultural heritage that the autonomic Executive has been performing in the last years, overcoming the usual “restoration work” scheme for the consideration of cultural heritage as a resource for the social and territorial development at the service of the people, a very present objective in the new Plan of the Cultural Heritage of Castilla y León, PAHIS 20/20. This new approach is based on the collaboration between public administrations, the civil society and private initiative, as well as the consideration of heritage as an economic asset and a resource with enormous potential that exponentially multiplies the investment that in it is placed. In this sense, it is a un-movable resource capable of bringing resources and investments to its territory and has therefore important effects over the territory and for the maintenance of the its population.
In its first stage (2010-2014), the Atlantic Romanesque Plan has contemplated the intervention in 16 churches: 11 in Castilla y León (six in Zamora and five in Salamanca) and five in Portugal. In the Autonomous Community, all buildings have been intervened, with a total of 30 interventions and an investment of 2.087.000 €, with implies the execution of 92% of the spanish budget.
New stage, same philosophy
The intention in the new period that begins today is to continue to potentiate the sustainable socio-economic growth of the territory, starting from its own resources: the people that live in it, its natural environment and its cultural heritage. In order to do this, the Plan will be focused on three fundamental intervention lines of work: integral interventions that not only facilitate restoration but also the preventive conservation and the effective management of the buildings; the drafting and implementation of a cultural and touristic management plan based in the creation of a public-private working network, and finally the development of dissemination and promotion activities.
In this new stage the intervention territory that encapsulates the Parque Natural de Arribes del Duero will be maintained, focusing efforts around San Martín, in San Martín de Castañeda (Zamora), San Pedro de la Nave (El Campillo), and San Martín (Salamanca).
San Pedro de la Nave
In 1930, Saltos del Duero (one of the companies that originated Iberdrola) was beginning de construction of what was to be one of the most important hydroelectric engineering works in Europe, the usage of Ricobayo, in the river Esla.
The project had attached a pioneer intervention in the field of corporate social responsibility: the relocation, stone by stone, of the visigothic temple of San Pedro de la Nave from the margins of the river to El Campillo. With the relocation of the church, performed with the scarce resources at the time, but with as much carefulness and rigor possible, Iberdrola ensured the conservation of this architectonic jewel and has guaranteed its legacy to the future generations.
Preventive conservation and guiding lighting
Even though it was in good structural usage conditions, the church presented some now eliminated humidity spots. Besides, the building has been included in the Heritage Monitoring System (MHS) developed by the Fundación Santa María la Real del Patrimonio Histórico to guarantee its appropriate conservation and maintenance.
On the other hand, the only lighting within the church was the natural light that entered through the arrow slits. In this sense, a new lighting system that allows for the adaptation of the light to the usage of the space in each moment and that facilitates the comprehension of the church while having minimal visual impact and energetic consumption has been designed and installed.
The intervention has given the building a new management plan, focused on improving and organizing the flow of visitors while the image of the church is potentiated. This goal has been accomplished through the creation of a visitor reception center integrated in the surrounding that both allows for the organization of the access to the church and facilitates an exhibitive area to display the historic elements and pieces held by the church.
From the beginning it has been a participative project that has had the involvement and the support not only of the implied entities, the Junta de Castilla y León, the Fundación Iberdrola and, in this case, the Bishopric of Zamora, but also of the parish, the Ayuntamiento de San Pedro de la Nave - La Almendra and the neighbours of El Campillo.
