Located in the town of Muga de Sayago in the province of Zamora, the church is one of the actions of the Atlantic Romanesque Plan, promoted by both entities.
The intervention is focusing on the recovery of a set of mural paintings from around the 16th century. In addition to the restoration process, to guarantee its conservation and enhancement, the installation of a new electricity supply based on solar panels and new ornamental lighting more in keeping with the history of the building are being undertaken.
The hermitage of Nuestra Señora de Fernandiel is located in the meadow of the same name, in the town of Muga de Sayago, in the province of Zamora. Its construction dates back to the 13th century, although numerous alterations and modifications took place in subsequent centuries. The building is notable for the large area of mural painting preserved within the large group of paintings of a more or less popular nature that have been preserved in the southwest of Zamora, northern Salamanca and the Portuguese border area.
The Fernandiel paintings were executed by various groups of painters at different times in the 16th century, as can be seen from the differences in style and the pigments chosen. The front wall is presided over by a pictorial altarpiece in which ochre tones dominate, and the whole was partially hidden by the gilded wooden altarpiece, installed there around the 18th century. When it was removed, the different scenes and decorative motifs that compose it, all referring to the life of the Virgin, were exposed, as well as a small excavated niche, which must have housed an ancient sculpture of the Virgin of Fernandiel.
The side walls of the chancel depict characters from the Old Testament, specifically the complete cycle of the Prophets, as well as others whose inscription has been lost, but who are probably Patriarchs and Kings of Israel. In the second section of the church, on the wall of the first arch, there are two pictorial altarpieces dedicated to Saint Anne and Saint Bridget, the only two paintings that have been accurately dated to date, executed in 1541. The side walls depict Gospel passages, several Fathers of the Church and four saints.
The mural paintings and their state of conservation
The mural paintings of Nuestra Señora de Fernandiel are painted on lime and sand mortar, applied in two layers: rendering and plastering. Their thinness reveals the significant irregularities of the building's masonry. There are dry-point incisions, corded lines to divide spaces and coloured lines on the rendering used to fit the drawing. Most of the work is dry-brushed, using egg tempera or casein, although the existence of an earlier fresco work has not been ruled out. The palette is made up of ochre, yellow, orange, red, brown, charcoal black and blue.
There was widespread dirt on the surface of the building, including surface dust, more compacted greasy dirt and localised stains of various kinds, such as the darker ones caused by the proliferation of micro-organisms. The state of conservation of the building, which was not ideal due to adverse environmental conditions and a lack of maintenance, showed stains from runoff and washings of the pictorial surface due to old water filtrations from the roof. Added to this were saline manifestations such as the whitish veils located mainly on the south wall, crystallisations of soluble salts that have caused the mortars to decohere and break and significant biological colonisation.
In addition, the pictorial layers showed significant alterations such as: cracks due to structural movements of the building, loss of union between the different layers, pocketing, material losses, decohesion or sandblasting, as well as numerous losses of polychromy. On the other hand, the successive alterations that have been made to the building have also affected the mural paintings as a whole. For example, at one point, an opening was opened in the south wall of the presbytery with the consequent loss of the polychromy. The application of cements and plaster in various repair operations, the chipping of almost all the paintings on the lower part of the walls, abrasions, knocks, scratches and even some graffiti were also noted.
