Restoration of Santa Maria in Barbera del Valles. Scars are also part of History

Abstract

Santa María de Barberà del Vallès is a Romanesque church that houses one of the most important wall paintings of its time, not only from an artistic point of view, but also because they are kept on-site. In 2006, the opening movement of the large crack that divided the apse and the triumphal arch where the wall paintings were was detected. Establishing the cause of the crack required several phases of previous studies to understand the building and its environment. The preservation works, which brought us a series of surprises, were carried out in 2014. The last objective was the restoration of the Romanesque frescoes. The link between the architectural restoration and restoration of the paintings was the perception of the large historical crack. Once the issue of the origin of the crack was solved, should we keep the crack trace or should we instead make it up?

Keywords

• Arquitectura Románica
• Pintura Románica
• Patrimonio religioso
• Estudios previos
• Criterios de intervención