Casa de la Vall Frescoes Near Restoration Completion After Four Months

**The restoration of the frescoes in Casa de la Vall's Sala de Passos Perduts nears completion after four months of work.**

Restorers Eudald Guillamet and Mireia Garcia provided an update on Wednesday on the near-final stage of restoring the 17th-century frescoes in the Sala de Passos Perduts at Casa de la Vall. The project, which began in February, aims to create a unified aesthetic reading of the pictorial cycle depicting Christ's Passion, addressing visual distortions accumulated over time from relocations, prior interventions, and external damage.

The frescoes, largely attributed to Miquel Orcau with one scene by Mestre Çanou, originated in the bishop's room—once used as a school and later the syndics' office—before being detached and moved to the current space in the late 1950s. They suffered from past transfers using the strappo technique, which left fissures, as well as outdated varnishes from 1960s restorations that caused unwanted glare under the room's lighting. Garcia focused on chromatic retouching to recover lost colour, ensuring subtle integration rather than an illusionistic reconstruction. She used stable, reversible restoration paints that can be removed easily in future work, prioritizing minimal intervention: "if less is enough, no more is needed."

Work has corrected graffiti, scratches, abrasions, and old retouches, while unifying edges from when panels were cut for relocation. Physically well-preserved, the pieces previously appeared as isolated fragments rather than a coherent cycle. Guillamet noted this had been a persistent issue since the 1990s, with the current effort delivering a global aesthetic resolution.

Garcia now concentrates on the largest panel, featuring the flagellation, crowning with thorns, and ascent to Calvary; the final scene remains unfinished, showing clear contrasts with restored sections marked by mortar stains and undefined lines. She works three to four days weekly for six-hour sessions to avoid eye fatigue. Completion is expected by mid-June, pending minor complementary tasks like woodwork, arch, and door restoration.

The seven-scene cycle—Prayer in Gethsemane, Arrest, Flagellation, Crowning, Fall en route to Calvary, Crucifixion, and Descent—stands out as a unique commissioned work in Andorran mural heritage, reflecting the wealth of the original Busquets family owners. The restored ensemble will enhance visitor appreciation ahead of Casa de la Vall's interior renewal and its role in Andorra's UNESCO candidacy.