On Thursday, November 13, Sebastián Battaner died in Salamanca, the city where he was born in 1941. He had a degree in Economic Sciences from the Commercial University of Deusto and in Law from the University of Valladolid. He was president of the Caja de Ahorros de Salamanca y Soria and the Duero Group from 1993 to 2003.
Battaner was a cultured, restless, supportive, generous and broad-minded person. Proof of this was that, when the priest José Velicia – who had been a parish priest in Olmedo and later was one in Valladolid – and José Jiménez Lozano – a great cultural reference and director of The North of Castile—, knowing that a great exhibition had been held in Barcelona on Art in the bishoprics of Cataloniawent to the headquarters of Caja Salamanca, to propose that the Caja’s Social Projects finance a great exhibition of religious art from Castilla y León in the cathedral of Valladolid that would be titled The ages of man. The success of the exhibition in Valladolid was such that it is still held today in cities and towns in Castilla y León.
In 1985, once the Aguilar Monastery was rehabilitated, from the Association of Friends, we set out to defend natural, cultural and artistic heritage, and especially the conservation, restoration and promotion of the Romanesque. Rosa de Lima Manzano insisted to me: “Tell the projects to Sebastián Battaner, who I am sure will give you all his support.” I didn’t have time to ask him for an interview because he anticipated me.
—What projects do you have on the table at the moment? -he asked us the day he arrived at the Aguilarense monastery without warning and with contagious energy and vitality.
-The Romanesque encyclopedia in Palencia —I answered him, proudly and smugly.
—That’s nothing new. García Guinea already published it a long time ago. You have to get involved with the Encyclopedia of Romanesque in Castilla y León!
That proposal was an unattainable utopia for a small cultural association, but it was worth trying because a rigorous study of the Romanesque was the most efficient way to protect many temples in unpopulated places. He gave us all his support and Cajaduero sponsored three seasons of The Keys to the Romanesque on TVE that brought this medieval art to the general public and promoted the Encyclopedia.
After the crisis of the Savings Banks, Battaner, as patron of our foundation, managed with the La Caixa Foundation the financing of the field work, documentation, and editing necessary to complete the 77 volumes of the monumental Encyclopedia of the Romanesque of the Iberian Peninsula whose completion Battaner himself was able to verify months before his death when I visited him in Salamana.
Dear friend, wise advisor, and extraordinary person for his ability, lucidity and generosity, Sebastián is an example of how efficient patriotism can be exercised based on ideas and realities of research and enhancement of historical heritage that reinforce the feeling of belonging and improve the lives of citizens.