To the rescue of the Palacio del Capricho: the works to rehabilitate it and turn it into a museum return after years of paralysis

They have been

, even harmful, and unfinished works.

But finally, in a couple of years, the

will recover its splendor after almost a century closed tight and tight.

The

, through the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports, has resumed work a little over a month ago - which it had to stop - to convert this building into a museum that remembers Josefa Pimentel Téllez Girón,

, the enlightened woman who ordered it to be built in the 18th century next to the well-known garden.

The rehabilitation and museographic project of this mansion, which comes from the previous legislature, carries a

behind it .

The former mayor of the capital, Manuela Carmena, tried during her mandate to recover the building, driven, in part, by a personal desire, since she admired the work that the Duchess had done in her time in favor of education, culture and the woman.

But the initiative that she launched her government turned out to be

.

They tried

-something materially impossible-, with a very limited budget -which did not reach three million euros as a whole- and with a contract tied hand and foot that did not allow any modification in the face of any unforeseen event, such as those that arose.

In 2018, with the project of the architects of the UTE

, winners of the contest launched by the Consistory, the work began.

Problems arose -common in rehabilitation works- and time caught up.

Despite the efforts of the City Council, which recently took control of the work,

.

And the relatives to turn the building into a museum -unrealistic and in the hands of Galician builders with little experience in these matters- never came to fruition.

In the last quarter of 2019, the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports, directed by Andrea Levy, decided to

due to the legal impossibility of moving them forward.

The entrance hall to the palace.

Now, the technicians of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Consistory have taken direct command, with a

developed together with the museum's management, to put the building into operation, not only half-finished and full of contemporary overtones that collide in a historic building of this caliber, but

, as GRAN MADRID has been able to verify

.

Maintaining, as far as possible, what has already been built, the municipal architects are going to

-there were also works in 1980 and 2010 with their corresponding failures- and they are going to restore the sense of heritage to the building that corresponds to it, putting in value those scarce treasures that have survived so many years of abandonment.

"There are decisions already made that we have inherited and that we will maintain," says Carmen Rojas, the conservative architect who directs the work in the palace, who together with her team is going to try -from "respect" to the work already done by other colleagues, assures- «to return the patrimonial sense to the building».

, but we are not going to make a false history or invent what we do not have dated,” she adds.

INTEGRAL REFORM

The current project includes a comprehensive reform.

that overlooks Calle de la Rambla

will be intervened .

The paint is going to be changed to give the building its initial appearance and to

, which became oval in 2010 when the Treasury Area (then the building was not attached to Culture) intervened in the building to consolidate it and restored a part of it, such as the entrance hall or the carpentry.

Also, on the outside, some technical aspects of the cladding and

are going to be repaired .

The

are going to be lifted to strengthen the insulation and eliminate those integrated roof gutters (also from the 2010 work) that can pose a hazard in a park.

And they're going to replace

were installed in the '80s, when the exterior was mostly restored.

Inside,

(very low ceilings due to large installations, inconsistent paintings, exposed brick walls, exposed wooden beams...).

Although others, which are almost a

in a historic building, are going to be kept because it is difficult to go back, such as the center of the building, which was completely diaphanous in the previous intervention,

.

In addition, in the current project, the

that have endured in this architecture of a domestic nature will be valued.

Among them,

, which contain, although in a pitiful state, three relics from the time of the IX Dukes of Osuna -two marble and slate inlays and a mosaic tile reproduction of the battle of Issos in Pompeii- that the City Council is going to restore and put in racks to protect them.

The

duke, duchess and infants' cabinets, located in the building's towers, will also be refurbished.

The dining room, with a valuable floor.

Finally, the palace, with three floors, will be

, from electricity (a large transformer will be installed in the park) to air conditioning, elevators, staff changing rooms, surveillance, the offices... And the underground floor, the

, which contain historical jars, will be refurbished.

The first phase, which began in early June with a budget of

, is scheduled to last one year and includes exterior, structural and accessibility works.

The second, where

euros are going to be invested, will focus on interior cladding, installations and finishes, and will foreseeably start before the end of this year.

The idea is that both can overlap and that at the end of the work, the museum (whose budget is separate) can also move forward.

If all goes according to plan, between December 2023 and February 2024, the two phases will be completed and the palace will open its doors.

"We are trying to rehabilitate the building in the shortest possible time, but

in the sense that the rehabilitation works know how they start but not how they are going to end," adds the architect in charge, an expert in rehabilitation, since she also intervened in the transformation of Count Duke.

The museum

According to detailed sources of Culture,

that will house the palace, acquiring works of art and documentary and bibliographic material that illustrate and recreate the life of the creators of the palace, as well as its history.

In the future, there will be paintings, prints, bibliographic material, furniture, decorative

and sumptuary

One of the old paintings from the cabinets of the Dukes.

The museum

and also on their enlightened interests, such as the promotion of education and agriculture from the Royal Economic Society of Matritense and the Board of Ladies of Honor and Merit and other institutions founded in this period.

It will also emphasize what is related to the condition of women and children in that period and the action of these institutions to

, schools for orphans and female prisons.

Likewise, importance will be given to

or to the important library that the family accumulated over the years, today preserved for the most part in the National Library of Spain.

«This new cultural facility represents a unique opportunity for the recovery, research and dissemination of one of the most important cultural heritage of our country.

It should not be forgotten that after the bankruptcy of the Ducal House of Osuna, its collections were auctioned at the end of the 19th century, today forming part of some of the most important art galleries in the world.

», the General Director of Libraries, Archives and Museums of the Madrid City Council, Emilio del Río, told this newspaper.

The palace in an old image, after the dukes.EM

«The work of the museum is to

.

That is, rewriting those chapters of our History where many outstanding members of the Osuna family shone: patrons, diplomats, soldiers, directors of the Prado Museum, mayors of Madrid... but also their

, among whom they shine with own light Josefa Pimentel, IX Duchess of Osuna, "he adds.

For the delegate of Culture, Tourism and Sports, Andrea Levy, the new Capricho museum "will

, providing an important cultural infrastructure to the twenty-first district".

«For the network of municipal museums in Madrid, the Museo de El Capricho stands out as a museum with a strong idiosyncrasy» comparable, says Levy, «in small size to real sites», although with «more cosmopolitan» collections.

From a recreational farm to being occupied in the Civil War

The Palacio del Capricho, owned by the municipality since 1974, was built between 1787 and 1789 as

at the wish of María Josefa Pimentel y Téllez Girón, Countess-Duchess of Benavente and Duchess of Osuna.

The best artists worked there and

.

To the ruin of the dukes, it fell into the hands of the

, who added the classic façade that overlooks the Capricho garden -considered an Asset of Cultural Interest-.

The palace has been abandoned for almost a century.

The last time it was occupied was during the Civil War, when the

settled there, making use of the

and that communicate with the

that is only a few meters away.

Since then, only the occasional film has been shot within its walls.

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