The Basilica of the Valley of the Fallen will be closed by the humidity.
San Lorenzo de El Escorial, February 16 .- The endemic dampness gets the Basilica of the Cross in the Valley of the Fallen has led to National Heritage to close the temple to tourism, after detecting the deterioration of the water leaks through the cracks open in the rock at low temperatures.
While National Trust allows free entry to the grounds of the estate that, cheap kinah, is the Cross in the Valley of the Fallen "Cuelgamuros", you can only enter the Basilica at 10.00 hours when the Benedictine Abbey of the Cross Valle officiate their daily mass.
However, the number of tourists has decreased since last January was closed to the public this temple, as there have been 12 473 visits, compared to 12 905 in, sto credits, January 2009, according to National Heritage.
It is not the first time that moisture endangers the property that houses the basilica, beneath the rock, and in 1998 the tapestries that make up the Apocalypse, sent for Brussels by Philip II in the sixteenth century, had to be moved the palace of La Granja for restoration.
Tapestries, given their value, could not remain, cheap aion kinah, exposed to the climatic factors and National Heritage as the replacement for a copy, which was located in the original place in the left side of the nave of the Basilica.
National Heritage also detected in 2000, for the first time in the history of the monument, due to weather problems in the four figures of the Evangelists, the sculptor Juan de Avalos, who suffered the release of some parts due to leaks and pressure exerted by the ice.
From there took place the first study on the state of the sculptures of the Evangelists, situated 25 meters above the base of the Cross as Virtues, 42 meters on the same basis, and proceeded to an intervention for minimize the damage.
In July 2008, the figure of La Piedad, located on the front door of the basilica, began to suffer the same fate, this time by summer storms, and the entry had to be protected during the restoration to prevent damage the tourist.
That same month, again the pieces fall Evangelists National Heritage forced to close the funicular and the access to the base of the Cross, for security reasons.
We also had to be closed after the attack of the terrorist group GRAPO in March 1999, at least fifteen days, while performing the cleanup and rehabilitation, especially the chancel and choir stalls, opening to the public even with the scaffolding of works that were performed.
The modernization of transformers and electrical installations and water supply and the Abbey Basilica de la Cruz del Valle, as well as the maintenance and restoration work have brought him a National Heritage an investment of 400,000 euros on average per year according to the same sources.
National Heritage said that in both 2009 and 2010 have had to adjust budgets when economic laying crosses.
For this reason, and because in the case of Valle is endemic in the monument itself by its location and constitution (rock that has to withstand wind, cold, rain,snow, extreme heat), it takes time to assess each and every one of the interventions that are necessary for its preservation and budget for its costes. 1010055