Parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Longares

Parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Longares

Calle del Pilar, 50460 Longares

CURRENT PROTECTION STATUS: ACI

TYPE OF ASSET: Property

CATEGORY: Religious

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE: Mudejar

CONSTRUCTION DATE:

The church of La Asunción de Nuestra Señora was erected adjacent to a Mudejar tower from 1390. The temple seen today dates back to the Renaissance and features a hall church layout with three naves covered by a stellar vault of great artistic value. Of the original Mudejar construction, only the tower and a short section of the exterior wall remain.

The tower was built entirely of brick in the late 14th century with a square footprint. It is divided into six levels covered by pointed barrel vaults.

There is very little decoration on the exterior, featuring two apertures with pointed arches located at the top of the tower, set within a frame of protruding brick highlights forming interlacing four-part octagonal shapes combined with cartouches and finished with decorative ceramic elements consisting of spike- shaped strips and discs with white, blue and green pieces. The top of the tower is crenelated and has a small octagonal tower atop a terraced roof.

Interventions

Restoration, 20th to 21st century

Between the 1980s and 2010, work and interventions were done on a number of occasions, most importantly the restoration of the altarpiece of the Virgen del Pilar, the cleaning of the organ in Felsburg, Switzerland, and the tower restoration in 1998.

In 1997 and 2001, the Government of Aragon funded the restoration of part of the church, focusing the work on stabilizing and repairing cracks in the vaults, arches, ribs and bosses, repairing the roofs over the nave and the atrium façade.

Further activities were carried out under the biennial restoration schemes of the Provincial Government of Zaragoza: in 2004, cracks and breakage in the vaults were repaired and adjacent areas were cleaned, and in 2006, the lighting and electricity were updated and the temple interior was painted.

Over the past 30 years, nearly 800,000 euros have been invested in the restoration of the church, funded by diverse institutions and organizations.

In January 2006, the work was completed and the church was opened to the public as a cultural center, after remaining closed for twenty years. In 2008, the last phase of the intervention took place, consisting in repairing damp patches infiltrated from adjacent buildings and completing the restoration of the furnishings (high altarpiece and foot of the organ).

Projects and interventions

Projects and interventions, and the driving forces behind them, define the history of monumental buildings and how they are perceived.

Declarations

Declaration, 21st century

The church of La Asunción de Nuestra Señora in Longares was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest under the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts Decree dated May 11, 1967, which was published in the Official State Gazette of May 30, 1967. The Official Gazette of Aragon (BOA) dated December 21, 2001 published the Department of Culture and Tourism Order of November 30, 2001, whereby the original declaration of the church of La Asunción de Nuestra Señora in Longares is supplemented pursuant to Transitional Provision One of Aragonese Cultural Heritage Act 3/1999, of March 10.

Bibliography

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