29/04/2008
Vitoria-Gasteiz, 29th April 2008.-
The Managing Director of the Santa María Cathedral Foundation, Juan
Ignacio Lasagabaster will be giving a talk today in Madrid as part of
the San Prudencio celebrations in the Spanish capital. “The complete
restoration of Vitoria’s Cathedral. Origin and developments” will keep
the Basque population living in Madrid up to date with the renovation
process.
Lasagabaster has been
invited to speak by the Royal Basque Congregation in Madrid, a
collective that groups together natives of the Basque region now living
in the Spanish capital. The origins of this group date back to 1715,
when it was founded “to attend to the spiritual and temporal needs of
its Basque brothers”. This group has been celebrating the festivity of
San Prudencio in Madrid for several years now, inviting figures from
the institutional and cultural sectors of Álava. This year, the
celebrations dedicated to the patron saint of Álava, which will begin
at 7.30 p.m. in the headquarters of Euskal Etxea (C/ Jovellanos, 3),
will be turning the spotlight on the old cathedral.
On this occasion, the newly appointed Managing Director of the Santa
María Cathedral Foundation will be talking about the crucial point
reached in the renovation work being carried out on the Cathedral, with
restoration work already underway on the tower and central naves.
Lasagabaster will also talk about the new spaces created by the
archaeological digs, which will be incorporated gradually, making it
possible to carry out a rich tapestry of activitiesHe will also
highlight the fact that in recent years this monument has become one of
the country’s most important tourist and cultural values and emblems.
Lasagabaster
will be visiting the restoration work being carried out at the Church
of San Ignacio, considered the church of the Basque community in
Madrid, which belongs to the Congregation. This church, close to the
Spanish Parliament, holds bilingual mass, in Basque and Spanish, every
Sunday and also holds special celebrations coinciding with the patron
saint festivals in the three Basque provinces.