GRATIS / FREE TIS / FREE - fuerteventura magazine hoy

6
Año IV - Nº 38 - Julio | July | Juli - 2009
ACTUALIDAD LOCAL / LOCAL NEWS / AKTUELLES VOR ORT
The Cabildo completes the roof and floor
repairs at San Agustín de Tefía’s chapel
FMHOY - Fuerteventura
The Cabildo, with the Culture and Historic Heritage
Council, started the repairs on San Agustín de Tefía’s
chapel with a project that aimed at repairing the
surrounding wall, roof and exterior and interior floors
of the building that was built by the village’s habitants
between 1713 and 1714.
San Agustín de Tefía’s chapel is an example of the
great artistic and historic worthiness of Majorero
religious architecture. Thanks to projects like this one,
their peculiarities are discovered and can be recorded
for their protection and preservation, so that future
generations can inherit of this cultural heritage in the
best conditions.
Regarding the roof – of which the interior is made of
a Canarian pine structure for the main nave and an
octagonal dome covered with plaster friezes-, the
repairs included the restoration of the wooden
structure with a bactericide preventive treatment and
the replacement of the few most damaged parts. On
the exterior, the project consisted mainly of replacing
the roof tiles – original Arabic tiles that could come
from Los Molinos’ quarry. The state of disrepair of the
roof had resulted in humidity infiltrations that created
damage on the interior wooden structure, although it
had recently been repaired in the 90’s.
Another important aspect of the project is the repair
of the chapel’s exterior surrounding wall (called «barbacana»)
that consisted of removing benches built against
the wall that were not part of the original structure and
prevented the airing of the wall, thus creating humidity.
A surrounding wall sometimes appears in Majorero
religious architecture (six temples on the island have
one). The surrounding walls built in Fuerteventura were
built around chapels that are away from other
habitations and therefore were probably built to keep
livestock away from the buildings, which were also used
as refuges for the population as churches tended to be
the most robust buildings in villages.
The interior floor of the chapel is another peculiarity
of this project, is it made of local handmade sandstone
slabs of various sizes. The floor presented irregularities
on its surface due to the fragility of the material,
worsened by use and humidity. According to Mr. Rodríguez
Molina, to dismantle and restore the floor would
have been a complicated procedure that would not
have guaranteed the material’s preservation and
«substitution is completely against the main principles
of restoration». It was decided to keep the original slabs
by installing a mat of vegetal fibre on wooden flooring
on the main path and in the most deteriorated areas,
«it is better to show time that has gone by rather than
cheat on history», he explains.
Finally, for the chapel’s exterior flooring, covered with
concrete slabs in the 80’s, the project proposed to
mark the cross pattern of the slabs with stones, a
solution that breaks up the continuity of the plains
slabs and makes the area look more adequate around
this traditional architecture.
FRANSISCAN SOBRIETY
The chapel of San Agustín de Tefía displays the usual
Fransiscan sobriety, and consists of a unique dome
with the sacristy on one side of the epistle and a gable
roof. In this case the chapel has a false octagonal
shaped dome which is unique in the island’s
architecture.
Its construction at the beginning of the 18 th century
comes within a general process occurring at this time
in Fuerteventura. A Royal warrant from Felipe V,
responding to a request from Bishop Juan Ruiz Simón,
authorised him to build the parishes of Pájara and La
Oliva in 1708 that were consecrated in 1711, at the
time there was only one parish in Fuerteventura.
This opened the way for other bishops and
neighbours to request new authorisations and various
parishes on the Island were created of which we can
witness temples all over the island.
Although it didn’t have a chapel until 1714, Tefía
consisted of a large population due to the immigration
of farm labourers who used to come from western
islands to cultivate grapevine and harvest cereals.