Professional restorers in Spain are demanding explanations after a historic church in the north-eastern city of Soria was given a bold makeover that has left the building’s cherubim looking startled and local heritage lovers up in arms.
The attentions lavished on the Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Mirón, which was built in 1725 on the ruins of a romanesque and gothic church, have drawn comparisons to the infamous “Ecce Homo/Monkey Christ” restoration that made headlines around the world 12 years ago.
For the online newspaper El Confidencial, the parallels were clear. “Another Ecce Homo, but with Cherubs?” asked its headline on Thursday. The paper had picked up on the concerns of a group, Soria Patrimonio (Soria Heritage), which had posted before-and-after pictures of the paint job on X, showing how the once white nave had been striped a dusky pink and its cherubim vividly, if crudely, freshened up.
“What have they done to the Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Mirón?” the group asked.
“It’s a listed building, but even if it weren’t, any work on a monument such as this had to be subject to minimum guarantees.”
Soria Patrimonio told El Confidencial the work was unsatisfactory as it had been carried out without the necessary preliminary studies, and had altered the appearance that the church had had for the past century.
“We’ve ended up with the decorative elements being outlined and the cherubs – which were white before – becoming caricature-like,” said the group.
“The repainting of a church such as this one falls outside the good intervention practices that apply to buildings with heritage value.”
Spain’s Professional Association of Restorers and Conservators (Acre) said the work showed the need for local and regional governments to have teams of professional restorers and conservators.
“There needs to be multidisciplinary teams to avoid these kinds of efforts,” Acre said in a statement. “There needs to be weekly inspections to keep track of the works and to prevent invasive and disrespectful alterations.” The association said it had asked the heritage department of the regional government of Castilla y León for an explanation.
Acre’s president, Francisco Manuel Espejo, said the work should only have been undertaken out by a professional restorer.
“This wasn’t a failed restoration,” he told the Guardian. “A restoration – successful or otherwise – is carried out by a qualified, official restorer. This was an attack on heritage that wasn’t carried out by a restorer or a conservator.”
Espejo also said the project should have been reviewed by the authorities before any work was begun.
“Fortunately, cases like this are pretty rare but we do regret that they’re still happening – especially when we’re still calling on the authorities for a change in the law because we think the heritage rules are too lax and light and don’t recognise the role of the restorer and conservator,” he added. “That means our heritage isn’t fully protected and it means that things like this can happen.”
The regional government of Castilla y León said the church did not come under its purview as the building did not have a sufficiently high level of heritage protection. Soria city council was contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the diocese of Osma-Soria, which is responsible for the church, said: “All I can tell you is that the works on the church were carried out with the required permissions and that some people like the end result and some don’t.”