About to meet one month of the fire that put in check to the Mosque of Córdoba it is not yet known exactly what caused the fire, but the Junta de Andalucía has given a date for the end of the restoration of the part of the monument, World Heritage, affected by the flames: “The complete rehabilitation could end in mid -2026, approximately,” said the Minister of Culture on Tuesday. Patricia del Pozo, after a visit to the enclosure. The deadlines that deck coincide with what the Cabildo has noticed in recent weeks, although the recovery project has not yet been presented.
The Cabildo and the Ministry of Culture, competent in the field of Andalusian historical heritage, have been eager for almost since the fire was extinguished, after 0.30 of August 9, in minimizing the scope of the flames and the damage caused and in recovering as soon as possible the normality, something that surprised the scientific community consulted by this newspaper. The same Saturday and with the smell of even latent embodies, the monument opened normally, although the ship of the expansion of the Almanzor chapel, the most affected by the flames, closed to the visitors.
The following Monday, the Board announced its authorization for the emergency intervention plan, which includes urgent cleaning. It is a necessary task, prior to the rehabilitation and restoration project, and that has not yet been completed, although, as the Minister, the most important works, such as the withdrawal, review and collection of debris, the disassembly of the wooden structures of the covers of the affected domes, the installation of a roof to protect those chapels of the rain, the shoring of a column and the cleanliness of the column and the cleanliness of the column and the cleanliness of a column and the cleaning of the column, Vaults of the archery of the nearest ship to the affected area, are already almost finalized.
The next step would be the presentation of the recovery and conservation plan to restore the fires damaged by the fire, a project for which, as indicated by the well, the Ministry works “hand in hand” with the Cabildo. In fact, the first meeting between the bishopric team and the culture technicians of the Board to begin to define the writing of that document will be held this Wednesday, as the counselor and the bishop of Córdoba, Jesús Fernández, who has also visited the affected area together with the mayor of the city, José María Bellido, have advanced.
The elaboration of this recovery plan, as explained to this newspaper the conservative architect of the Mosque, Gabriel Ruiz Cabrero, could take about three months and should count, in any case, with the approval of the Junta de Andalucía and the delegation and culture of the City Council of Córdoba. The bishop, however, this morning has advanced that they would like to present it at the end of September or the beginning of October. The project will include, on the one hand, the reconstruction of the affected vaults, and then the repair of the most affected movable property. In this rehabilitation, the Minister of Culture has also advanced that the lobby of the door of San Nicolás, which until now had been used by the Cabildo as a warehouse and is just the area where it is believed that the fire originated, and the door of the same name, “which can serve as one of the evacuation doors of the temple”, as pointed out by the Dean-President of the Cabildo, Joaquón Alberto Nieva.
The use of one of the spaces of the monument as a warehouse has been questioned by all the experts consulted. Even the Cabildo recognized last spring the risk of having stored in the mosque different belongings. In that area it is where, according to the first hypotheses, the fire could originate, due to the short circuit of an electricity. From there the flames were spread to three other contiguous chapels, being the most affected that of the announcement whose vault fell during the early hours of the fire although, according to the conservative, the altarpiece barely suffered damage, except for a cornice of the upper part.
In emergency work, in addition to underpinning the covers of the affected chapels, what has most worried is one of the columns and capitel of the lobby area that had to be propped up. How to restore them in the future is another of Ruiz Cabrera’s main concerns. “Is it more interesting to maintain a column with the samples of the damage it has suffered as a testimony of the fire, or is it preferable, as the old ones did, change it for a new one?” He wondered in the conversation he had with this newspaper.
Although the cost of rehabilitation estimated in a million euros, the Cabildo has not offered any figure publicly, although he has assured that the bishopric will entirely suffer the amount of the works thanks to the contingency fund it has for unforeseen events like these.
While they are speculated with the dates on which the rehabilitation of the monument could be finished after the scare of August 8 and with what can be coast, nothing is known about the origin of the fire. The scientific police are finalizing the report that would be decisive for the court to investigate the fire determines whether it is necessary to open proceedings and, where appropriate, debug responsibilities.