To the side of a hundred year old mulberry tree and surrounded by a beautiful natural landscape, sits the parish church of Cozcurrita. The church is a small building constructed of granite ashlars and masonry, an abundant material in the area. The bell cote is primarily composed of ashlars and the East end of rough ashlars. The nave is composed of rough ashlars and masonry. All of this sheds light on the possibility that there were three different constructive phases. The church is formed by a quadrangular East end, a gable roof, a sacristy attached to the north side, a single nave and a doorway sheltered beneath a modest porch and finally a bell cote at the foot of the church. The cemetery is located on the northern end. The doorway is simple but clearly from the Romanesque period. However, it is located in a strange place, the extreme eastern part of the north wall. The interior of the church has been extensively reformed at other times and is mainly characterized by its modest construction.
The church of St. Mary Magdalene had an outdated electrical system, both in safety and quality of lighting, which conflicted with the historical and artistic value of the temple. In addition, the facility did not ensure a minimum of security, threatening both the integrity of the building as well as its users. The intervention has focused, therefore, on providing illumination suitable for a monument of this category, reducing the visual impact and incorporating an appropriate level of security. Continuous lighting was chosen while at the same time the most noteworthy elements of the church would be subtly illuminated, such as the lateral altars and baptismal font. The different uses of the church have also been taken into account because here, different liturgies take place that require specific lighting, as well as cultural or tourist uses, without forgetting the addition of emergency lighting the church lacked before the intervention.
One of the objectives of the Atlantic Romanesque Plan is to achieve an optimal level of protection and maintenance of heritage assets, using the latest technologies and the most innovative solutions. In this regard, the church of St. Mary Magdalene has been integrated in the Monitoring Heritage System (MHS). MHS is a system that controls, in real time, various parameters that can affect the conservation of the temples, such as moisture or temperature. These are difficult to monitor visually and in some cases may pose a risk to the conservation of buildings and works of art. To avoid this and to improve the protection of the monument, the system has a number of sensors installed in the church, which emit data to the control center on a regular basis and wirelessly, where they are processed and interpreted. In the occurrence of a potentially dangerous situation, a team of experts can act rapidly. We call this 'preventive conservation'.
