Restoration of the Collegiate church in Salas

Salas, Asturias, Principado de Asturias.
Special mention / Diploma in the category Conservation / Conservation and adaptive reuse in the year 1992.

Dating of the building: 16th - 18th century.

Applicant: Cosme Cuenca and Jorge Hevia and Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports.

Reason for the award :

For the restoration in the Collegiate Church of Salas.

  • © Víctor Gibello Bravo
  • © Víctor Gibello Bravo
  • © Andrea Menéndez
  • © Consejería de Educación y Cultura del Gobierno del Principado de Asturias
  • © Víctor Gibello Bravo

The collegiate church in Salas has an alabaster mausoleum of Pompeo Leoni, one of the most celebrated sculptors of the late Renaissance.

Salas is an Asturian town of barely ten thousand inhabitants with three buildings included in the catalogue of National Monuments, the castle, the church of San Martín, and the Collegiate Church. The latter, laying on top of the foundations of a previous church, was built in the 16th century and expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries. Inside there are two significant Baroque altarpieces from the Valladolid school, but above all the mausoleum of Fernando de Valdés y Salas, inquisitor, archbishop of Seville, founder of the University of Oviedo, and an important figure of the time. This is evident in the alabaster cenotaph, with the portrait of the deceased in prayer under an arcosolio, made by one of the great geniuses of late Renaissance sculpture, Pompeo Leoni. The restoration of the Collegiate Church had two phases. The first in 1988, focused on the rehabilitation of its masonry walls with a drainage and waterproofing system. And the second in 1990, consisting of cleaning the main altar and mausoleum.

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