Man Who Found a Hidden Renaissance Facade in Spain Is Still Waiting for His Reward
Nearly ten years after he found a Renaissance church front hidden inside an old house, Juan Francisco León Catena has not been paid the reward he is owed. ArtNews reports that an Andalusian government valuation committee has found he is entitled to more than €1 million (US$1.2 million) for the discovery.
The find began in November 2016. León Catena and his father started pulling down interior walls in a property in Úbeda, a town in Andalusia, the southern Spanish region. Behind the plaster was a stone facade, the decorative front face of a building. It measures roughly 49 feet (15 metres) wide and 36 feet (11 metres) tall.
The stonework belongs to the chapel of the former Hospital of San Jorge, also known as the Hospital of Pero Almindes, which was founded in 1347. The surviving front includes Renaissance additions attributed to Andrés de Vandelvira, a 16th-century architect. The Renaissance was the European style of art and building that looked back to ancient Rome and Greece.
Úbeda and the neighbouring town of Baeza were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. UNESCO is the United Nations body that keeps a list of places judged to have outstanding cultural value.
The reward has been a long fight. The regional government first refused to pay. Spain's Supreme Court, the country's highest court, then settled the dispute in León Catena's favour. The money has still not arrived.
The facade itself is in limbo. It remains cordoned off, much as it was when it was uncovered in 2016. León Catena has proposed opening it to the street so the public can see it. In return, he wants the city to cover the cost of renovating the four-storey building that holds it.
A conservation report, a professional assessment of a building's condition, commissioned by the regional government raises a separate problem. It warned that leaking roofs in neighbouring municipal properties have caused water damage, rotting wooden beams and mould. The report also flagged a risk of structural collapse.
For now, the stone stays behind its barriers. The reward is owed, but no payment has been made, and nobody has yet said when the facade will be opened to visitors.
