Many of us will remember the photo of the Church of San Pedro de la Nave (El Campillo, Zamora, Spain), built in the 7th-8th centuries, from our textbooks, where it was described as one of the few remaining and best preserved examples of Visigothic architecture. In fact, I was surprised to come across the same photo in my son’s History and Geography book not even two months ago.
San Pedro is awe-inspiring, not because of its scale, but because of the beauty of its architecture, embossed friezes and the capitals of its columns. Its iconography has been the object of numerous studies. It is very interesting to know, for example, that one of the capitals depicting St. Peter shows him carrying a cross and a book instead of the key that is usually his symbol; he has been identified as St. Peter because his name is sculpted in the capital itself.
To view the Church of San Pedro is to admire the skill of those that sculpted the friezes and figures almost one thousand three hundred years ago, which are virtually intact even today. It is incredibly beautiful.
In Spain in the 1920s, the modernisation the country needed was necessarily linked to industrial and technological development and the availability of electricity was crucial. In this regard, San Pedro de la Nave is inextricably tied to the history of Iberdrola, and more specifically to the development of the Ricobayo hydroelectric project.
Indeed, the problem of the Ricobayo spillway and how it was solved (1934) is still a case study included in engineering degrees all around the world. I once saw the recreation of this spillway at the hydraulic laboratory still in operation beside the power plant, a facility that receives a large number of visitors.
To go back to the church, I should point out that San Pedro de la Nave was located on the left bank of the River Esla, in a spot that would have been flooded by water after the reservoir was filled.
To avoid the disappearance of San Pedro, in 1930 the company Saltos del Duero (present-day Iberdrola) undertook the task of dismantling it and moving it stone by stone to its current location in El Campillo, Zamora (about 12 km from the original site). Care was taken to ensure that the transfer would be made with every possible guarantee and the company invested a considerable sum of money at the time – one hundred thousand pesetas – in the venture.
It was an unprecedented milestone and the success of the transfer was based on the meticulousness and rigour with which the architect nominated by the Administration, Alejandro Ferrant, directed the work.
Everything about the transfer was clouded in controversy and even social alarm: from the way it should be done to the final resting place for the building. Iberdrola’s Historical Archive, adjacent to the Ricobayo dam, is in charge of keeping and safeguarding the documentation from that period and I must admit that I am amazed by some of the proposals that were made to save San Pedro. For example, to surround the church with an embankment that would protect it from the water (let us not forget that the temple would have been submerged 35 metres). Another suggestion made at the time was to build a reinforced concrete platform under the foundations of the church and then use rafts to float the ensemble when the reservoir was filled and thereby move the church along the river bank.
There is no doubt that there was no shortage of imagination but luckily the most feasible solution from the financial and technical perspectives prevailed.
Now, after 84 years, Iberdrola is returning to San Pedro de la Nave via its Foundation. It is doing so under the auspices of the Atlantic Romanesque Plan, a joint initiative with the Regional Government of Castile and León and the Portuguese State Secretariat for Culture to restore and enhance a number of churches inside the area of influence of the River Támega.
Apart from the restoration in itself, which could have occurred to many, this intervention also focuses on setting up a new management plan for the building, while at the same time promoting the image of the church.
The future visitor welcome centre is now under construction and there will also be an exhibition area displaying the Romanesque stelae currently being stored at the church.
In a second stage, work will be carried out on the church roof to repair the leaks currently affecting the building. The carpentry will be renovated, the drainage in the foundations will be improved and the church will be equipped with an efficient lighting system in keeping with its characteristics.
Meanwhile, data continues to be gathered from the sensors installed as part of the Heritage Monitoring System developed by the Fundación Santa María La Real, which is contributing to the project with its expertise and experience in the restoration of Romanesque architecture.
The work is expected to be completed by the middle of the year, so I’ll sign off by inviting you all to book a weekend to visit San Pedro de la Nave and enjoy the beauty of this work of art: small in terms of its dimensions but great on account of its value as a document in the history of Spanish architectonic art.
