Architecture can become a window into the past: studying buildings from different eras, representative of the styles present in their time, is a way of approaching Galician culture, history and heritage. But over time, over the centuries, wear and erosion accompanies it, and restoration work eventually becomes necessary to ensure the integrity of these structures. In order to respect its heritage value, but giving priority to the care and preservation of the architectural ensemble. However, it is inevitable that in some cases losses will be incurred, especially if the work was undertaken at a time when technology was rudimentary. This is what happened in the church of Sar, in Santiago de Compostela, which Eight hundred years ago it was very different; and now, after extensive research, a team of culture and heritage experts have recreated its interior and exterior. Its plan as it was in the 13th century, on virtual tour.
The work is part of an expansion of the museum offer in the Galician capital promoted by the Cathedral Foundation and results in an agreement between the Archbishopric of Santiago and the University of Vigo (UVigo) promoted by the Department of Culture. Victoriano Nodar, professor and professor at the Faculty of History of Ourense and scientific director of the project, remembers in conversation with ABC how it started, about two years ago. The church was already his old acquaintance: he published his first study on it in 2012 and says that it is, “after the Cathedral, the best preserved Romanesque building” in Santiago. However, its current structure is tilted, partially sunken, almost giving the impression that it is “going to fall”. The work of Nodar and his team aimed to illustrate why.
Vaults and arcades
“At the time we discovered that the tilt of the church was not due to the terrain, but to some vaults added in the 15th century. […]. Its weight almost collapsed and the church was completely renovated in the 18th century. They put these buttresses in it, these great and powerful arches that it has on the outside. We had to redo the entire entrance and rebuild the vaults,” he says. The audiovisual they have prepared covers, inside and out, a realistic, large-scale virtual recreation of the church as it was originally, before additions were made.
In addition to the absence of arcades on its sides, for Nodar “the facade with three rose windows” is very surprising, today absent – after having been replaced by windows in the 18th century works, a more economical alternative. From the inside, the expert points out that the pillars “are not inclined”, as they are represented before suffering the overload of the vaultsand a false triforium presides over the arcades, like the cathedral.
“The goal was, based on the documentation of this and other similar churches, to reconstruct what this initial project would have looked like.” Because it turns out that Sar, says Nodar, is “a sort of germ, let’s say, of a model which would spread in the second half of the 12th century and in the 13th”: “We have other examples which are closely linked in Sar despite its distance, like the collegiate church of Santa María, in Xunqueira de Ambía (Orense), who is your twin“. “Making the plans was the first thing. For this we have Elena Bello –specialist in the technical and historical documentation of the Cathedral of Santiago–, who drew them incorporating references to other monuments” to recreate a faithful image of “what it would have been”, he summarizes.
“From there, Alejandro Durán, from the Doctorate Program in Heritage, Interuniversity Program of the University of Málaga, made the 3D model. “It looks like you press a button on the computer and it’s ready, but that’s not the case. “It was a great process,” he recalls, translating the sketches into a large-scale virtual environment, developed last year.
For Nodar, the importance of the project that came to fruition with his team comes down to the fact that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” It is about “knowledge transfer” and its approach gives a more visual result than any scientific article. If the objectives are achieved, the recreation, now visible on the MuSar website, will also be included in the museum exhibition.
