The General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Government of Aragon will restore the façade of the Basilica of Santa Engracia with a budget of 329,936.75 euros (VAT included) and a completion period of 8 months. The work will begin once the actions to recover the façade have been undertaken. The façade is made of ashlars, pieces, and plaques of alabaster. The main agents of deterioration are water, thermal fluctuations, and the aging of materials. Exposure to atmospheric agents such as wind, cold, sunlight, lack of maintenance, dirt, pollution, and humidity has affected its condition.
The project was commissioned to the company Arte, Conservación y Restauración S.L. (Ártyco) and delivered in April 2023. Since July 2025, the Archdiocese has been working on the façade with a budget of 235,850.37 euros and a timeline of 6 months. The restoration of the façade will begin once the façade works, estimated to be completed by December 2025, are finished.
The work will include protective measures, preliminary analysis, cleaning and consolidation of the alabaster, sealing of cracks, adhering unstable fragments, repositioning loose pieces, volumetric reintegration, and selective biocidal treatments. It will be completed with a protective layer, an inspection of the anti-bird system, and restoration of the door and stained glass.
The project has a budget of 329,936.75 euros (VAT included) with a duration of 8 months. The call for bids has been published in the Public Sector Procurement Platform and in the Official Journal of the European Union, with a deadline for submissions until December 1.
The Basilica of Santa Engracia, declared a Cultural Heritage Asset in 1882 as the first protected monument in Zaragoza, is a basilical temple built between 1891 and 1899. It was erected on the remains of the old Royal Hieronymite Monastery (1493-1518), of which only the Renaissance alabaster façade survives, the work of Gil Morlanes the Elder, initiated in 1511 and completed by his son around 1516. The rest of the monastery was demolished in the 19th century following the damages from the War of Independence. The reredos façade, divided into two floors with three bays and an attic, houses in the crypt the remains of Santa Engracia and the countless martyrs and was intervened in 1899 by the sculptor Carlos Palao, who performed subsequent intervention, and the structure was restored between 1992 and 1993 with funding from the Government of Aragon.
