Symptoms: cracks, deformations, excess moisture, droppings, rusty metals, weathered stone, dirt. Diagnosis: the Puerta de Alcalá is more deteriorated than expected and requires immediate restoration. This is what the Madrid City Council has concluded after four months of study on one of the most iconic monuments of the capital, covered since last July by a screen-printed canvas. Road traffic, environmental pollution, weather agents -especially rain and snow-, organic waste from animals, the use of inappropriate conservation products and more than 30 years if a thorough repair have damaged the door more than famous in Spain To cure it, the City Council proposes to completely lift the lead cover that covers the monument and limit traffic in the area, among other actions that will begin in 2023.
Madrileños and tourists will have to wait between 10 and 12 more months to take photos again, the minimum time that the repairs will last and in which almost three million euros will be invested, as announced by the City Council on Wednesday. “The last openwork restoration was in 1992. Since then we did not know its true state of conservation,” said Luis Lafuente, general director of Cultural Heritage of the City Council, at the press conference held to account for the wear and tear on the door. He has detailed, together with the technical team that has participated in the analysis, that there are three elements in the worst condition: the sculptures, some of which weigh more than 2,500 kilos, the granite on the façade and the lead roof.
Since its construction, back in 1778, the Puerta de Alcalá has undergone 10 interventions, the first in 1869, almost a century after it was erected. Even then there were problems with the lead covering the entire top of the monument, and various areas have been replaced over the years. The last replacement, in 1992, was complete, but it has not prevented progressive deterioration.
Why? The main failure is the lack of ventilation of the roof and the accumulation of water whenever it rains or snows. For example, the Filomena storm stained Madrid white a year and a half ago and greatly affected the monument. Water seeps under the lead and accumulates, causing constant moisture that soaks and weakens the granite below, and oxidizes the metal elements. With the restoration, the City Council wants to change this cover again for one that does allow ventilation.
In addition to the humidity, the sudden changes in temperature have also deteriorated the granite of the door, and the limestone of the sculptures. It is what is known as thermal stress: the stone contracts with the cold and expands with the heat, which causes flaking, cracks and breaks. Then there are the previous interventions. In many of them, especially those from the beginning of the 20th century, products and techniques -such as directly chipping the stone- were used to remove dirt that were not adequate. The results are stains, more humidity, blackened spots or sculptures that have weakened and lost some fragments.
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Lafuente has qualified that the monument is “stable”, despite requiring a “deep” intervention that will begin within a month: “Nothing that cannot be solved through restoration.” Among the planned actions, all rusty metal elements will be removed and replaced, for example those that hold some sculptures, the façade will be cleaned, mortars in poor condition will be changed or parts where there is a risk of landslides will be repaired.
Regarding whether they are going to modify external elements that affect the monument, such as traffic, Lafuente has advanced that the reduction in the number of vehicles that circulate is on the table: “A study of mobility is going to be carried out, which also includes Alcala square. It is not easy and we are realistic, all road traffic is not going to be eliminated”. The technical team has stressed that traffic is one more risk of deterioration, but not the one that worries them the most.
The director of Heritage has insisted that the door is not on display in a museum, where maintenance conditions are controlled to the millimeter, but that it is an urban and outdoor element: “It is a space open to the public, close for nothing to happen to him is unthinkable”. For this reason, they do not plan to limit the demonstrations or concentrations of various kinds ―such as sports celebrations or marches on LGBTI pride day― that the square and the door witness.
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