Intervention in Seville's Cathedral
The renovation works focus on the western half of the north gallery of the Patio de los Naranjos, between the Sanctuary’s Church and the Puerta del Perdón, over the spaces that currently occupy the sacristy and the offices of the Sagrario. Access to these spaces is from the Patio de los Naranjos.
This building was erected in the Almohad period and has been the subject of important interventions over the centuries, such as the creation of a barrel vault in the 17th century or the introduction in the mid-20th century of the central staircase nucleus for register the spaces that are now being reformed.
The constructed area affected by the works has been 460 m2, which includes the creation of a room for multiple uses, an administrative area with several offices for parish dependencies, De la Corona Brotherhood and Sacramental Brotherhood, the new communications center as well as several auxiliary dependencies.
Regardless of the innumerable advantages with the incorporation of the new functional program for these spaces, the action has allowed to recover the original possibility of contemplating the interior of the nave in all its height thanks to the replacement of the existing stair core with another one that, running around a new elevator adapted for people with disabilities, it releases a double-height space next to the access façade that spans from the ground floor to the deck. It has also made possible the contemplation of the upper floor of both the extrados of the vault and the remains of the Almohad plasterwork that were discovered during the works, by creating a groove in the slab one meter wide attached to the northern wall, which converts turn to this in exhibition support.
It is a respectful intervention with the existing constructive elements on which it has acted such as the vault, the sloping roof with its trusses of wooden squares, the Almohad plaster cloths, the skirting of artistic azulejería of the seventeenth century located in the entrance, the brick factory or the stone wall in contact with the Church of the Tabernacle. These have been put into value by using incorporated materials such as marble in the floors and staircase floor, oak wood in the floor and wall coverings, as well as by controlled lighting, with presence detection systems , intensity attenuators, led lamps, etc.
It should be noted that the realization of these works has brought to light a series of findings hidden by the construction in its previous state. Thus, during the excavation work appeared an Almohad staircase built entirely of brick and covered by a barrel vault that gave access to a service gallery that allowed to reach the original drain of one of the reservoirs located in the Patio de los Naranjos. These remains have been incorporated into the intervention, which can be observed from inside the building itself. Also they have appeared wall remains of almohad plaster that were hidden by the kidneys of the vault, during the works of structural consolidation of this.
