In 2014 is celebrated on 60 anniversary of the reconstruction of the main altar of the Church of Monroyo, a good opportunity to remember how this work was carried out.
The Church of the Assumption of Monroyo, like so many others, was seriously damaged during the Civil War. The high altar and the saints were burned to the ground, during the war the temple was used as a barn and apparently the bells would have a different destiny than to call the faithful, accompany the deceased, ringing on the day of the patron saint or warning of a fire.
As stated in the box book filed in the town hall of Monroyo entitled "Cash book of the Acquisition of the Bells and arrangement of the Bell Tower and the Construction of the Main Altar, Sculpture of the Patroness of the Assumption of Ntrª. Srª and Mural Paintings" the year of 1952 a board was formed for the reconstruction of the church consisting of the following members:
President: Mayor D. Desiderio Belsa Omella
Vocals: Sres Curas D. Andres Muñoz, D. Jose Mª Galve and D. Luis Andres.
" D. Vicente Arrufat Omella
" D. Jose Centelles Querol
" D. Enrique Sancho Omella
" D. Pedro Blanc Riba
" D. Emiliano Saura Lombarte
" Master D. Antonio Meseguer Puell
" Secretary D. Jose Palatian Fuster
The bells were melted in the workshops Cronos de Roquetas and their cost amounted to 32.000,00 pesetas and the arrangement of the bell tower a 6,480,00 Pesetas, total 38.480,00 pesetas or what is the same 231.27 Us $. This work was paid for, apparently, with the sale of public wood to Adrian Martín and José Lombarte de Monroyo and Guallar de Alcañiz plus Small donations from Desiderio Belsa and Vicente Arrufat and the collection of several masses.
The cost of the reconstruction of the altar was 98.518,98 pesetas exactly 592.11 € leaving a surplus of 300 pesetas or 13.82 Us $
Artists who have participated in the Construction, Altar and Patroness.
Sculptor: D. Ramon Isern Solé
Painters: Messrs. Puiggalí and Fornas
Altar builder: D. Camilo Bel
Painter: D. Cristobal Sierra
I have not managed to keep track of Camilo Bel, who would be a carpenter or cabinetmaker from some town not far from Monroyo And who built the wooden altarpiece and neither of Cristóbal Sierra, painter, that carried out the polychromy work on the wood.
Image of the Virgin of the Assumption.
Polychrome wood carving by Ramón Isern Sole
Barcelona 26 July 1914 Trondheim (Norway) 04 May 1989
The carving was made in the artist's studio on Avenida Diagonal 410 of Barcelona. It was sculpted in wood from Flanders and curiously my father, who in those years was in Barcelona helped him in the work of gluing and roughing.
The sculpture depicting the Patron Saint of Monroyo is life-size, counting the cloud and pedestal on which it rests and measures in total 240 cm. height in one piece, is the image of a Mediterranean woman of soft features as a woman from Monroyo could be, Nativity Lombarte Guarc, wife and at the time model of the artist was a native of Monroyo de casa Casto, hence without a doubt, that it was to Isern who was commissioned the carving and surely Nati his inspiration and model in details such as the posture of the hands and the folds of the mantle.
Ramon Isern settled in Norway where he obtained great recognition for his work
To know more about the artist:
The altarpiece at the top of the altar represents the coronation of the Virgin. is the work of Jordi Puiggali Clavell, sculptor and painter who has been a professor of modeling and molding at the school of arts and crafts of Badalona and director of the same. Disciple of the sculptor Bohigas, Vicenç Navarro and Frederic Mares. Partner of the Reial Cercle Artistic del Foment de les Arts Decoratives, of the Dome of Coliseum and the Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc and member of the now defunct Associació d'Artistes Actuals. Among the most important works of the Artist is the altarpiece of the Main Altar of the Church of Monroyo.
To know more about the artist:
Fresh
George Fornas Martinez Barcelona 1927 – 2011
Graphic designer, painter and decorator trained in the School of Fine Arts of Barcelona participates as a painter in the Municipal Exhibitions of Fine Arts of Barcelona(1951-1953) and in the first Latin American Biennial of Art (1951) and at the Fifth Autumn Show in Barcelona. Tiene work in the museo de arte moderno de Oslo...
To know more about the artist.
Inconfundable style of Fornas en el Cuadro entitled five people and a table.
