16/04/2008
Vitoria-Gasteiz, 16th April 2008.-
The Santa María Cathedral Foundation is embarking on a new stage
following the appointment of Juan Ignacio Lasagabaster as Managing
Director, taking over from Gonzalo Arroita. With in-depth knowledge of
the project, on which he has worked as a technical director,
Lasagabaster is taking over the reins at a significant point in the
renovation project and just as the Basque Government is being brought
in as a Foundation Trustee.
This morning, the President of the Board of Trustees of the Santa María
Cathedral Foundation, Lorena López de Lacalle, witnessed the handover
from Arroita to Lasagabaster, two people who have been linked to the
renovation of the Cathedral since the Foundation was created in 2000.
In close collaboration at the head of a large team and after eight
years of success and intense work, they have made the Cathedral of
Santa María a point of reference in terms of comprehensive monument
restoration and one of the Basque Country’s main tourist attractions.
Arroita is leaving the Foundation to join an agency that works to
recover and promote the city’s Historic Quarter.
Prior
to this appointment, Juan Ignacio Lasagabaster developed and directed
the Restoration Management Plan from the mid 1990s onwards, and then
became the technical director of the Foundation, in his capacity as
Head of the Historic Heritage - Architecture Service with Álava’s
Regional Council. One of his first commitments will be to manage the
inclusion of the Basque Government in the Board of Trustees, whose
members currently include Álava’s Regional Council, Vitoria Council and
the Bishopric as its members, as approved at the latest meeting. Even
though the Basque Government has been constantly collaborating to
finance the research, publicity and education programmes launched,
which have made fundamental aspects of the Cathedral restoration
project viable, it will be integrating fully into the project in the
near future. Furthermore, Lasagabaster hopes to create a new
organisational structure in the Foundation which, among other things,
will draw up a strategic plan for the period 2009-2013 with a view to
finalising the architectural restoration of the Cathedral, and
developing and consolidating its potential as a religious and cultural
space with a life and personality of its own.
Crucial
point in the restoration process
The new Managing
Director is taking over at a crucial point in the restoration project.
The plan that defines the functional and formal solutions to be applied
to the monument and the surrounding area has already been drafted, and
two of the main projects are underway: the restoration of the tower and
the portico and the central naves. Therefore, the next stage will
involve incorporating new spaces. A crucial process is also beginning
to evaluate the scope and severity of the structural problems detected
in the south arm of the transept caused by the archaeological digs. The
result will determine the development of the consolidation project.
Lasagabaster will also be responsible for developing proposals about
how to use the new spaces created by archaeological digs inside the
Cathedral, which could be used for museum/exhibition purposes, and
guided tours. After passing through the magnificent space
created underneath the portico, visitors end up in the tower, which
offers an unbeatable vantage point over the city. Other spaces that
could be recovered, such as the 18th Century sacristy, the Paternina
chapel, the Santiago chapel and the adjoining houses in Calle
Cuchillería will also make it possible to run different activities.
The new Managing
Director is also one of the main exponents of the need to promote and
apply the experience gained over these years in the management of the
Cathedral of Santa María in other locations, and to take advantage of
the intellectual cache of the model. In this respect, Lasagabaster
hopes that the Foundation’s activity will continue to be the reference
point for the ZAIN Research Centre, which emerged precisely from this
experience.