Oblivious to the electoral advance and the 12-M pre-campaign, the Sant Jordi room of the Palau de la Generalitat is immersed in a hustle and bustle very different from that experienced in the neighboring offices. There are no politicians here, but a team of restorers with helmets, gloves and reflective vests, who climb the scaffolding every day with a mission: to rescue the Renaissance essence of this noble room, once the gigantic murals from the time of Primo de Rivera. The works, started in May 2023, are entering the last phase, at a good pace, and the transformation is radical.
Once the murals were removed, the white stucco on the walls and a unique and minimalist decoration on the arches were revealed, which returned to the living room an appearance very similar to what it must have had at the beginning of the 17th century, when the architect Pere Blai finished its construction. and it was a sober and open chapel, with natural light entering the dome.
The original decoration is preserved in fairly good condition and has a high heritage value, since it is of a unique pictorial style, exceptional in Catalonia: the grotesque, which was practiced by the Italian Renaissance artists, inspired by the decorations of the grottoes of ancient Rome. . Pere Blai had that influence.
“They are paintings that combine plant motifs with fantastic figures. The Domus Aurea was decorated like this, and the Renaissance artists recovered that technique for decorations of the period and Christian orientation,” explains, on site, the restorer Rudi Ranesi, coordinator of the team in charge of the mural painting and stone.
The good condition of the grotesque of the arches and the stucco of the walls and vaults was the first of the surprises that this trip to the past of the Sant Jordi room has brought about. The initial project, with a budget of 1.9 million euros, included the removal of the dictatorship's murals – 24 large paintings on the walls, 45 smaller ones in the vaults and a patchwork puzzle in the dome – and the subsequent provisional adaptation of these surfaces with a light-colored felt to give it an appearance similar to the original. But last December the plan was modified.
"From previous studies it was known that under the 1926 murals there were remains of Renaissance decoration, but we did not imagine that so much and in such good condition, something that could only be assessed when the scaffolding was put up a year ago and new coves could be made. , which were very encouraging,” says architect Júlia Roca, head of Palau Heritage.
“Given the discovery of these signs, at the return of the summer the project was paralyzed and experts from the heritage field came. “Everyone agreed that we had a hidden gem,” says Josep Girabal, deputy director general of Obres i Serveis of the Department of the Presidency. The project was changed, according to the company Urcotext, heritage expert and winner of the public competition. The felt option was rejected and the team of restorers was expanded.
“In the painting of the arches, the quality of the color and the adhesion to the stone is good, but what is surprising is the quantity found,” explains the director of the Béns Mobles Restoration Center, Mireia Mestre. The arches of the central nave are practically complete and we have recovered the grisaille ring at the base of the dome, which we didn't even know was there.”
On the walls and vaults, the white stuccos, 400 years old, were in good condition, despite the fact that the room has had various uses during this time, and was even a home. A thorough cleaning and restoration intervention has been necessary, but no new stucco has been applied. “We do not intend to return to the 1600s. What we have is an aged renaissance,” clarifies Ranesi. “Nor is painting on top of the grotesque, although in some cases to improve reading from below we complete the drawing with the tratteggio technique (parallel stripes) and watercolors that could be removed with a sponge,” he adds.
Another surprise was finding on four walls the incisions made by the painter Joaquín Torres-García as a guide for the frescoes he painted at the beginning of the 20th century on behalf of the Mancomunitat and which are preserved in another room.
And a great find was also hidden, in this case behind a wall that blocked four windows on the façade that faces Plaza Sant Jaume from the inside. “When we removed the brick wall we discovered eight polychrome stained glass windows from 1880, magnificent and very well preserved,” says Girabal. Once the carpentry of the windows has been restored, they will be replaced.
With the white walls and the light entering through the stained glass windows, the change in the Sant Jordi room will be so radical that it will not leave anyone indifferent. It will soon be seen. In August everything should be ready. The inauguration date was already set two years ago: Onze de Setembre, whoever the president is then.
