The exhibition area of ​​the Sijena Monastery, under construction until the end of the year

Work continues at the Monastery of Sijena to display the assets recovered from Catalonia after years of work and legal disputes. The Government of Aragon awarded the new work on the dormitory nave to the company Albas Tierz Constructora SA on Tuesday for 445,166 euros (VAT included). It involves its transformation into an exhibition and storage area and the work has a deadline of three and a half months, so it could be finished before the end of the year. This is not the first time that work has been done on this part of the monastic complex, the east and north wings, provisionally enabled in 2015 to house the assets.

The basic project designed in May of this year includes the various paintings, sculptures and altarpieces that will be installed once the renovations are finished. For example, the Linde cross, various nuns’ habits, paintings of Saint Clara, Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Ubaldesca, Saint Gertrude and Saint Teresa of Jesus, as well as goldsmith’s objects, funerary objects, reliefs with religious motifs or documents and images about the history of the Monastery, which dates back to 1188 as a place of retreat for the noble ladies of the court of King Alfonso II.

More specifically, the wing to be occupied was once used for communal dormitories and the aim is to respect the shape and organisation, although, according to the schedule set out in the specifications, demolitions will be carried out in the preliminary works, in order to then proceed to cement and shore up the area. The aim of the resulting space is for the entrance to the exhibition to take place through a door on the east side of the Monastery, which will lead to an “ open hall ” suitable for all visitors, including those with reduced mobility.

From there, the so-called “ control post ”, the exhibition will be delimited by the different structures and display cases , “which follow a common formal and material pattern” but can be adapted “in size and degree of equipment to respond to the different conservation capacities of the objects on display ”. The storage space will be created at the end of the ship, according to the details of the basic project. This is where the objects that are not on view to the public will end up, although the text advances the possibility of setting up a restoration workshop. The area will be separated to control access and “facilitate a continuous view of the ship”. The successful bidder will also be responsible for the lighting equipment.

A LONG LIST OF WORKS

Aside from the legal dispute, which was resolved with the latest Supreme Court ruling in 2021, the Monastery has a long list of actions to accommodate the assets once they are returned to Aragon. In this century, as stated in the report justifying the contract signed by Councillor Tomasa Hernández, reforms have been undertaken between 2000 and 2006 and again in 2015, the latter already aimed at receiving the works of art from Lérida.

In the following years, the roof was also revised and the stonework of the arches was consolidated and the cladding and carpentry were repaired. In 2018, a new agreement was signed between the DGA and the Royal Monastery of the Nuns of San Juan de Jerusalén, by which the economic Executive committed to maintaining the ideal museum conditions and paying the corresponding expenses “for any type of work.”

In this sense, between 2022 and 2023 the restoration and adaptation of the warehouses was carried out, which are now being worked on again. The pending issue of both the previous Government, with Javier Lambán, and the current one, is that the assets are exposed to the public, for which we will have to wait.