Restoration of the Chapel of Aragon, Catalunia and Navarre

The chapel of the langue of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre underwent major restoration interventions between 2010 – 2011. The restorations took place on the initiative of The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation, with the assistance of sponsors namely the Consorcio de Museus de la Comunitat Valencia, APS Bank, Din l-Art Helwa and Shireburn Software Limited. The project consisted of the restoration of the dome and wall carvings and the marble funerary monuments as well as the restoration of the lunette painting representing The Martyrdom of St Lawrence and the painting  of St Francis Xavier both works by Mattia Preti.

The dome and walls of the chapel, like the rest of the church, had suffered from the ravages of time. The main cause of deterioration was due to the infiltration of rain water from the dome which caused the irreparable loss of the gilding and the erosion of some of the carvings. The lower strata of the walls had lost most of their gilding as a result of rising damp. The remaining carvings and gilding had severely deteriorated and were covered with a thick layer of candle soot deposits as well as dust and grime that had accumulated over the years.  The painstaking process of bringing this chapel back to a good state of conservation took more time than predicted to complete on account of the poor state of preservation.

The first stage of the restoration consisted of the careful removal of the thick layer of dust and candle soot by using acqueous solutions followed by thorough rinsing with de-iodized water whilst stubborn encrustations were removed with appropriate cleaning solutions. Any linseed oil applied during the twentieth century was removed using poultices of alkaline solutions. This was followed by the consolidation of the loose stone carvings after which the walls were prepared for regilding which was carried out using 24 carat gold leaf adopting the same gilding process that was used in the 17th century.

The restoration of the dome was carried out by ReCoop and partly sponsored by the Consorcio de Museus de la Comunitat Valencia. The walls of the chapel were restored by Giuseppe Mantella Restauri. The marble cladding of the reredos and the monuments of Grand Masters Martin de Redin and Raphael Cotoner were cleaned and restored by Raymond Aquilina, the resident marble restorer of The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation.