Santiago recovers its Glory days

The Pórtico de la Gloria at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia is closer to doing justice to its name. On Wednesday, the regional government announced it will invest 2.5 million euros in an ambitious restoration of the façade of a temple that is the annual destination of thousands of pilgrims journeying on the Camino de Santiago, or Saint James Way, route.

The project began three years ago, when scaffolding went up over the triple portal known as the Portico of Glory, a 12th-century sculptural masterpiece by Mestre Mateo. Since then, a series of economic, political and technical setbacks have put the restoration on hold. Authorities said that the complete restoration will take "around 24 months," now that experts have located the problems that had accelerated the portico's physical deterioration in recent decades. These were essentially due to the dampness caused by deterioration in the Obradoiro itself, the cathedral's main façade.

That is why work on the Pórtico de la Gloria will not begin before the completion of the restoration of the Obradoiro, the best-known side of a Roman Catholic temple that will celebrate the 800th anniversary of its consecration next year.

The project is being funded by Fundación Barrié de la Maza, whose work with the regional government of Galicia has been marked by a notable lack of coordination at several stages. For several months last year, the monitoring of the Pórtico de la Gloria was abandoned due to disagreements between the lender and regional officials. The foundation has already invested two million euros in the preliminary studies.

Meanwhile, the 2.5 million euros contributed by the Xunta de Galicia will, in addition to restoring the Obradoiro, serve to create a Technical Rehabilitation Office tasked with paving the way for future self-financing based on charging visitors to see certain parts of the cathedral.

The dampness is an old structural problem that's been carried over from the 18th century when Casas Novoa erected the Baroque façade. A special team coordinated by an expert restorer from the Institute of Spain's Cultural Heritage, Concha Cirujano, and by Harvard University medieval art specialist Francisco Prado, carried out an arduous documentation task to study the Pórtico de la Gloria in greater depth. The team conducted polychrome studies - there are five layers of paint left, including the original - and environmental analyses on the impact of temperature, moisture and the constant flow of tourists.

The restoration work will begin with a six-month trial period, followed by the actual improvements. One of the most impressive discoveries so far has been the presence of salt in the stone, which has caused the once polychromous sculptures to lose color.

The techniques to be employed in the cleaning of the four types of granite used during construction depend on the stone's state of conservation. Aspiration, brushing and laser are the methods of choice for the more delicate areas, such as those where the thinness of the paint poses a high risk of detachment. Another negative by-product of the pervasive dampness is the presence of algae colonies in the stone, which will have to be eliminated.

Restorers will also extract the wax and cement used in the last century during unfortunate restoration projects that have blocked transpiration and caused the stone to blacken. Lastly, a conservation plan currently at the draft stage will establish measures aimed at preserving the monument in good conditions - these measures range from facilities management to curbing "anti-social attitudes."