Miradas de la Cultura: Santos Juanes recupera la luz

There are places that are not only part of a city, but also of its memory. The Church of Santos Juanes is one of them: a fundamental temple in the history of Valencia that, after decades marked by the damage of the 1936 fire and by partial restorations, has recovered its light, its ornamental richness, and much of its original splendor. The first episode of Miradas de la Cultura (Glimpses of Culture), the video podcast of the Hortensia Herrero Foundation, delves into this exceptional restoration, made possible thanks to the Foundation's own patronage. This highly complex project has allowed Santos Juanes to regain the prominence it deserves within Valencian heritage and has once again transformed a visit into an experience capable of moving both locals and visitors. To understand the scope of the project, the episode features two of its key figures: Carlos Campos, the architect responsible for the architectural intervention, and Pilar Roig, who led the restoration of the paintings, sculptures, and ornamentation. Together with them, we explore a church that preserves traces of different eras, from its Gothic foundations to the Baroque exuberance of its paintings, sculptures, stucco work, and gilding. The conversation reveals the challenges of a restoration marked by the memory of fire, the recovery of Antonio Palomino's paintings, the decades of research conducted by the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and the work of a large interdisciplinary team. It also highlights the importance of details: the lighting, the recovery of hidden architectural elements, the dressing room of the Virgin of the Forsaken, the Gothic gargoyles, and the spaces between vaults that help us understand the building's history. But above all, this episode is the story of a long-awaited restoration. A project that has combined knowledge, technique, passion, and commitment to heritage, and which found in the Hortensia Herrero Foundation the decisive impetus to be completed. Santos Juanes thus returns to its rightful place: that of one of Valencia's great cultural treasures.