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The monastic pharmacy and its garden. La Oliva Monastery

Posted on 25/02/2025

Summary introduction to the Story

Pharmacies and their gardens were essential spaces in the sanitary role of monasteries in Europe. Those on the Way of St James were of particular importance.

Although not on this route, the Monastery of Saint Mary of La Oliva in Carcastillo (Navarra, Spain) also had a pharmacy and its medicinal garden.

We are gradually preparing a small medicinal garden with several objectives. First of all, the project aims at developing an educational workshop on plant care that would engage all the community.

The workshops will also highlight the role that the monasteries have had as for botany and its uses in apothecary.

Apart from that, we would like to enhance the beauty of these surroundings, enrich their biodiversity, and improve the visitor´s experience. Our goal is also to strengthen the heritage awareness among the local communities about the importance of this monastery as a dynamic element of culture.

It is also an opportunity to engage immigrants in these activities, giving them a chance to learn about this cultural heritage in order to promote their integration into the new host community.

The activity will be completed during the EHDs 2025 and will be presented in accordance with this year’s theme. By looking through the windows of the past, we can contemplate the old apothecary and its gardens, and we open the doors to enjoying medicinal gardening for the future local community.

The recent restoration of the church has helped to raise the popularity of the monastery. Anyone can visit this place as well as participate in the gardening workshops, not only during the EHDs but all year round. All the activities encourage face-to-face communication and help reduce the screen time among teenagers.

Obras en el Monasterio de La Oliva. Navarra

We are willing to exchange our knowledge about medicinal gardens with other monasteries in Spain and Europe.

Senanque Abbey

Long description of the story

The monastery of Saint Mary of La Oliva is located close to the village of Carcastillo , (Spain) in the south of the Navarra region, known as “La Ribera”. This is a rural area that, like most such areas in Spain and Europe, is currently facing the problem of ageing local population, but at the same time experiencing an influx of new generation members who come from other countries and cultures. This situation requires a rethinking of cultural heritage: the integration of newcomers means understanding their culture but also helping them to get to know, understand and enjoy the culture of the host country.

In addition, another challenge that we are facing is the lack of interest regarding cultural heritage in the young Spanish population.

This should not be understood as a complaint but rather a diagnosis that will help us to better tackle the situation, and as far as possible, to bring about a positive change. This is, in our opinion, where actions from local and small communities can be executed. These actions to preserve and help people to understand the cultural heritage are essential even if they can be evaluated as humble.

Taking into consideration all of the above, we would like to carry out an activity of creating a medicinal garden in a small area of the La Oliva Monastery, and at the same time, explain the role of monasteries in people’s daily lives over centuries.

We are planning to develop a participative activity rather than give lectures about architecture, art styles and so on. We would like the participants to fully engage in the activity, and as a consequence, rediscover their cultural heritage.

Criteria:

When talking about the original botanic garden of La Oliva Monastery, we must point out the fact that it was not located where we are now sowing the medicinal plants. The original location was in the enclosure area, close to the pharmacy, where the ill monks were taken care of. The area chosen for our activity is easily accessible since it is just in front of the main entrance. Hence, everyone is welcome to join us.

We would also like to highlight another important aspect when talking about this heritage. This garden is being created with all the formal permissions of the Heritage authorities. Therefore, as organisers, we must comply with many rules and conditions such as: under no circumstances can we act in the building, and what is more, if any problem arises with the plants, there exists a possibility of interrupting the whole activity or even cancelling it.

The Cistercian aesthetic and its elements are also being taken into consideration.

It is also very important to respect and, if possible, enhance the biodiversity of the site. We do not know how the plants, insects, and bees, will behave, but we will take good care of them. We will see how everything changes throughout the seasons, and we want to get in touch with other monasteries. We want to ask them about their archives, information they have about the old monastic apothecaries, among others.

There are professors of Pharmacy Faculties in different Spanish universities who are interested in the field of researching monastic apothecaries. We will keep them informed about this project in case it can serve as an incentive for the students to start their research in this area.

It is not possible to add more information for the time being.

European dimension

There are countless examples of apothecaries and medicinal gardens in the monasteries of Europe and their bibliographic collections, or shops dedicated to sell some products (especially in the area of cosmetics such as natural soaps and creams for body, face and hands) as well as herbal teas. These are some monasteries with which we can collaborate in this project:

the French monastery of Senanque and its famous lavender plantation
The Olimje Monastery with its Old Pharmacy and the garden of medicinal herbs
The Vatican Museums in Rome, which guard the apothecary’s shop of the ancient convent of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.
The Spanish monastic apothecaries of Guadalupe and Yuste, which can also be considered to have a European dimension.

As we know, apothecaries are always accompanied by gardens with medicinal plants.

Blog

Soria and the Antonio Machado secondary school, part of our history

Posted on 07/02/2025

Sometimes you meet people with whom you hit it off right away. That’s exactly how our association and IES Antonio Machado (The Antonio Machado Secondary School) got together. We met online, chatted about AB AQUIS (our first documentary) and just kept in touch ever since. Here’s how our visits went:

Ab Aquis

Proyecto Vozmediano

Espacio Santa Clara

The wonderful students from IES Machado participated in the filming of ETERNO (our most recent documentary) as well as in the visit and conversation in Espacio Santa Clara. The girls even appear in the trailer of the documentary, which you can watch here.

We all asked ourselves some important questions like: Why do we reject places that we don’t know? How do we form prejudices? Through what channels and information do we form our thinking and opinion? What happens when we dare to approach realities that we don’t know? And what are the consequences of losing material and immaterial heritage without even being aware of this loss?

All these issues were discussed with the students present in the room.

De izqda a dcha: Pablo Beorlegui, Miguel Arguibide y Javier Martínez Romera durante el coloquio

As always, we are very grateful to the teachers who welcomed us in Soria and with whom we have already made friends.

A great opportunity for the young filmmakers: Pablo Beorlegui and Miguel Arguibide

Pablo and Miguel have been directors and scriptwriters of ETERNO. It was also a great opportunity for them to make themselves known and to experience being in front of a camera. They’re the ones who are always behind the camera, so it was great to see them in the spotlight for a change.

Pablo Beorlegui atendiendo a La8TV

The interview with them was shown on the local TV channel – La8CyL TV, and they were lucky enough to be filmed in the amazing and historic Aula Machado.

Miguel Arguibide entrevistado por La8 TV

They’d also been interviewed a few months ago in ‘Rehabilita con éxito’ in San Sebastián, which you can watch here.

These photographs really show the most important issue for Patrimonio para jóvenes, which is that the real protagonists of our activities are always the young people. We love promoting their talents, not ours. We want them to be the ones creating content,getting those ‘creative juices’ flowing and having a blast when discovering cultural heritage.

As you can imagine, we are often approached by people who would like us to organise a lecture for the youth, where the speaker could blow their own trumpet. But this is not the way we work. In Spanish we call this attitude “He venido a hablar de mi libro’’.

Well, it’s just the opposite, we give the floor to young people though we know that they will become aware of some things years later. However, we as our association’s board are not collecting merits or academic points. We love to share our passion for heritage through life experiences whenever we get the chance.

Alumnas que participaron en el rodaje de ETERNO haciéndose un selfie ante el cartel

We always try to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere, and we’re true believers that freshness and spontaneity don’t have to be about frivolity.

And of course, just a bit of sightseeing in Soria

What a well-spent morning! After leaving the school building, we headed to the Diputación (local council office) to say hello to Silvia from the Film Commission. We just couldn’t resist a quick Romanesque stop, even if it was just for a photo… Here we are at the beautiful entrance of San Juan de Rabanera.

Pablo y Miguel con Pilar presidenta de Patrimonio para jóvenes en San Juan de Rabanera

Before catching the bus, and us going back to Pamplona and José Luis to Madrid (he is the one who took these cool pictures that you can see here), we went into magical places like the Círculo Amistad Numancia. It seems that time has stopped there. There are some rooms like in a movie.

Pablo Miguel y José Luis converdando con Javier Mtnez Romera

Salón

We had such a lovely chat with Javier Martínez Romera, and it was so interesting to meet David Ortega, who calls himself the ‘Grandson of Martín and Socorro, Adolfo and Alicia from Soria and Burgos in part’. He’s got loads of followers on social media because he’s so good at talking about the region of Castilla, especially Soria.

Tertulia mañanera en el Casino Numancia

We hope to come back as soon as possible. Thanks everyone!

Blog

ETERNO THE DOCUMENTARY

Posted on 29/10/2024

After months of hard work, the day finally came.

Everything comes at the right time. The shooting began in mid-December and in a somewhat uncertain manner. Pablo and Miguel were excited about the idea of continuing the project “Monasteries: Past, Present, and Future”, but they were not yet aware of the scope of this story. As the months and filming time went by, and as they were discovering more spaces and meeting new people, they became more and more enthusiastic.

Obras en el Monasterio de La Oliva. Navarra

One of the first impressive moments was to see the final phase of the works in the church of the Monastery of La Oliva, to which the photo above corresponds.

Cuenca, Burgos, Soria, Palencia, and the province of Valladolid were part of the itinerary, and the journey itself made them aware of the lack of knowledge of the heritage that belongs to them.

Miguel durante el rodaje en Cuenca

Indeed, this documentary aimed to explore the reason behind that collective ignorance regarding monasteries, as well as the prejudice and suspicion towards these places, a feeling that is also collective, not just among young people. The digital magazine Rehabilita con éxito publishes an article about us and this work, and presents the situation with a very graphic analogy, using a renovation of the Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu football stadium as an example. You can read about it at this link.

En la biblioteca de La Merced en Cuenca

The time the authors of this documentary dedicated to this project, the anecdotes about the journey, the conversations they had – all these were laying the groundwork for them to later tackle their first creation of some significance and as professionals. “Ab Aquis” was their first attempt at creating a documentary while they were still students of the Audiovisual Degree Programme. Here you can read a piece of news that El Día de Soria newspaper published back then. Ab Aquis a documentary against oblivion.

To make ETERNO, they travelled between January and June, ending with the volunteering week at the Monastery of La Oliva. Visiting cities and monasteries in the low touristic season, with few tourists around, or even being alone, as happened during the filming in San Isidro de Dueñas, made the work easier because there were better opportunities to talk calmly with the people they met and, as a result, enjoy these special moments and reflect on their experience.

In the summer, they edited a trailer and then took some time off before diving into the full editing at the end of August. The trailer they released at the end of July can be seen here.

The volunteering days for 2024 can be seen at this link An Adventure at the Cistercian Abbey of La Oliva.

Pablo Beorlegui durante el rodaje de ETERNO en La Oliva. Foto de @jlarce_

Everything was moving in the right direction. A reflection by the author Antonio Monegal comes to mind here: “It is necessary to understand culture not as a selection of works or products, but as a complex system through which human beings negotiate their relationship with the environment; a series of models, norms and options that govern both individual and collective conduct”. How is the relationship with the environment such as the models, norms and options of today’s society? Are they norms and options freely chosen and consciously assumed?

At the Navarra Film Library

Miguel and Pablo informed the association’s management about the arrangements they were making with the Navarra Film Library to be able to present “ETERNO” in that venue. All those months of work deserved a good screen with ample space for the audience. Additionally, in the meantime, an article had already been published about this ongoing work, so expectations were high. You can read it here.

Miguel Arguibide y Pablo Beorlegui con la directiva de Patrimonio para Jóvenes

The idea that the documentary was going to be screened in the film library excited us, but at the same time, we were somewhat afraid of such a large venue —would it fill up? Well, yes… it was completely full. Not only were there our families and friends but also the public who usually attend the film library’s screenings, and whom we hadn’t known until that day. What a great time the kids had taking pictures with their loved ones next to the poster announcing ETERNO!

Pablo Beorlegui con su familia

MIguel Arguibide con su familia

Pablo and Miguel presented the audience the idea behind ETERNO and talked about their journey, in both literal and metaphorical sense, which led to their personal growth. In this sense, their experience was like that of the photographer José Luis Martínez Arce the previous year.

Pilar Ortuño del Fraile also had her big moment. Seeing the poster in large format that took her so long to design and that she had to start over so many times. Working on this concept involved hours of discussions with the authors of ETERNO to make sure that the result was the best. And here she is standing next to her work.

The screening was followed by applause and then a lively discussion. For many viewers, it was the first time to see monasteries, and one of the questions that arose was about how the monks had treated the authors of the documentary, about the monastic guest houses and their functioning, and whether this filming had changed their lives in any way.

Miguel Arguibide y Pablo Beorlegui presentando ETERNO

There were moments of deep reflection as well as funny ones.

Un momento del coloquio

The three people in charge of Patrimonio para Jovenes also participated in the informal talk. It was an opportunity to introduce the association to those who hadn’t known it yet and for us to be heard and for questions to be answered by those of us who are responsible for this entire adventure.

Interviene Berta Guindano

All that’s left is to thank everyone. First of all, we would like to give special thanks to Miguel Arguibide and Pablo Beorlegui for taking on the challenge of this work. We know it wasn’t easy and it’s very possible that they will still make some corrections to the first version. Thanks to all the communities that have welcomed them in their monasteries and to all the people who have attended them in museums, cultural centres, and hotels that were once monasteries. Now we must reflect on what we are going to do with this heritage and become aware of this precious legacy.

And finally, many thanks to Berta Carrillo, who offered taking the photos and made it possible for us to have images to remember.

Blog

A congress in Cracow

Posted on 08/10/2024

A great surprise at the end of December 2023

In December 2023 we received the news of being chosen as one of the finalists in the Innovator of the Year Award organised by the institution Future for Religious Heritage.

It made us so proud due to the fact that Patrimonio para Jovenes is a small association and we competed against large entities and projects. About the winner and the finalists you can read here

And the congress was held in Cracow, which was another surprise and joy. Patrimonio para Jovenes is 12 years old and during this time whenever we had a chance to participate in an international congress, it was always in Madrid.

Being shortlisted as finalists brought us a kind of obligation to travel to Poland although it meant a big effort in terms of time and money.

Llegada de Berta y Pilar al aeropuerto de Cracovia

After considering it carefully, we thought it was worth travelling. It was an opportunity to meet people from all walks of life working on religious heritage. During the congress we had to explain that Patrimonio para Jovenes does not dedicate itself exclusively to religious buildings.

Cracow has also a special sentimental value to us. It is a city that has a lot to do with the life of the pope Saint John Paul II, who is one of the patrons of Patrimonio para Jovenes.

Another decision was about who to send to the congress. We were thinking of some of the young people that have been working on the project about monasteries over these years, among whom are: the architect Lucia Ruiz Ullate, Jose Luis Martínez Arce, Pablo Ramos Aguado or Pablo Beorlegui and Miguel Arguibide.

Pablo y Miguel en un momento del rodaje

Pablo and Miguel are now working very hard on the edition of “ETERNO – the documentary about what we were never taught”. A preview can be seen here

An article about this is also available on the FRH web here

All the aforementioned people have worked hard, with creativity and professionalism, although all of them are very young (in their twenties) and the oldest one is 33 years old.

Unfortunately, not everybody has a good level of English, and the ones with high level did not have free days to travel to Cracow. Nevertheless, all of them are the true protagonists of this award and you can see them in many entries of this blog.

We would like to give special thanks to the volunteers of summer 2023 and June 2024. You can read more about these activities here.

The pleasure of meeting new people

Not only is the city amazing, but the people we met there. Special thanks to Rocio Sanchez and Jordi Mallarach

Chiara Curti, Pilar Gómez Bahamonde, Melanie Kay Smith, Maria Arno, among many other people.

Lilian Grootswagers was the person in charge of presenting the winner’s and finalists’ projects.

Lillian Grootswagers explica nuestro proyecto

And here we are with Jordi and Rocio and the rest of the awardees.

Blog

An adventure in a Cistercian abbey

Posted on 15/07/2024

HOW CAN WE MAKE SURE THAT OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE IS PRESERVED IN THE FUTURE?

Since 2021 when we began the program “monasteries past present and future”, there has been one idea that has been repeated continuously, namely that it is impossible to maintain our cultural heritage without really knowing it.

It doesn´t matter how big the investments in the rehabilitation of the heritage sites are if new generations take them for granted or even worse, they don´t know about their existence.

On the other hand, we cannot have any guarantee of decent rehabilitations in the future if people in charge of them know nothing about the essence of these places nor they have ever experienced them.

Regarding that, we made a proposal to Irene Pascual, a young lady in charge of events and institutional communication at Monasterio de Valbuena, which is a luxury hotel belonging to the prestigious hotel brand Castilla Termal.

“How about we invite the staff of your hotel, which used to be a monastery, to get to know the everyday life of a real monastery?” This friendly talk was shot in a beautiful old chapel. And here you have it available in Spanish

At the same time, we also organise scholarships for young professionals who every year, travelled to visit real monasteries, and buildings that used to be monasteries but today have a different function such as hotels, cultural centres or museums. After the journey, they have to make an oral presentation talking about their experiences and conclusions they have reached.

As an example, here you have the talk of the photographer José Luis Martínez Arce, just click here:

Just like every year we also had the volunteering week. In 2023 it was held in San Pedro de Cardeña, Burgos in the region of Castilla y Leon (Spain). You can find out more about it here

Hora del café

Now in 2024 we were at Monasterio de La Oliva, in Carcastilo, Navarra. Read on to find out what we did.

A VOLUNTERING WEEK BUT A FILMING WEEK AS WELL

Pablo Beorlegui durante el rodaje en La Oliva

It was a fun but also intense week. Not only because all the team has been working hard on getting to know the daily life inside a monastery, the real “ora et labora” of the monks, their prayers, playing music, keeping archives, gardening, maintaining supplies, among others, but also because of Miguel Arguibide and Pablo Beorlegui shooting their documentary there

En el campanario de La Oliva

Both are working on a documentary that will be released in autumn and as you can see in the photo below, we are sure that it will be a piece of work of a really high level 🙂

Pablo y Miguel en un momento del rodaje

EXPERIENCES THAT WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN

We are very much aware of the fact that, in general, the young are quite reluctant to participate in so called “cultural events”. And it´s probably because they associate them with the idea of having to listen to a lecture given by an expert. That is why we devote our efforts to make the young become the real protagonists of these events.

En la cocina del monasterio de La Oliva

Both boys and girls are welcome to participate in our events, although this year no girl signed up for the volunteering week. Everything this year’s volunteers learned when living with the monks helped them to better understand how difficult the maintenance of these big old buildings is.

What is more, everybody contributed to the project with their knowledge. For instance, Iñigo Medrano, who is an industrial engineer, talked about energy efficiency of solar panels and the need for keeping them thoroughly clean. So, here you can see the team cleaning the panels.

Limpiando las placas solares

There were moments of friendly meetings and time for having fun, especially at coffee time – sobremesa, which is typical of the Spanish lifestyle. Sobremesa is a time after lunch, especially during holidays or special days, when people spend their time just talking and sharing thoughts in an informal way.

Sobremesa

One aspect that everybody talked about was the big surprise that the elderly monks turned out to be for them. Their vitality and strength caught the attention of the young volunteers.

It was a worthwhile week. The volunteers had the chance to listen to the architect in charge of the renovation of the church, José Luis Franchez Apecechea.

Visita con José Luis Franchez.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

The volunteering week has been the last activity of the 2023/2024 academic year but not the end of the project.

Pablo and Miguel are still working on their documentary. From January to June 2024, they talked with many people, and it is not possible to include all the conversations in the documentary. For that reason, all the interviews are available on our Youtube channel.

Not only did they visit some monasteries, but they also explored some churches that are not churches anymore. Here you can listen to an interview in La Merced Library.

En la biblioteca de La Merced en Cuenca

It is located close to the seminar and in the old church of Our Lady of La Merced in the beautiful city of Cuenca, (Worldwide Heritage site) which is in the region of Castilla la Mancha, Spain. Click here to listen to the conversation:

Here is another example of a former church, Espacio Torner, also situated in Cuenca.

Just look at the beauty of Monastery of San Juan located in the north of Spain, in the city of Burgos, just on the way of Saint James (Camino de Santiago).

Pablo Ramos Aguado con Pablo Beorlegui y Miguel Arguibide en el antiguo monasterio de San Juan de Burgos

Another day to remember was the filming day with the female students of Instituto Antonio Machado, in the small town of Soria. They spent a morning together at Espacio Santa Clara. Click here if you want to find out more.

En el Espacio Santa Clara en Soria con alumnas del IES Machado

All the volunteers have worked hard, and each has contributed to the project with their creativity, personal worth and values, which makes Patrimonio para Jovenes a brilliant project. It is the result of the sum of high capacities of many enthusiastic people, of people who dare to do something different and who are not afraid to take on challenges.

Los volutnarios en la puerta de la iglesia con el P. Abad

We would also like to thank the Cistercians communities for trusting us. All these activities are described in detail in our annual report. Here you can see the delivery of the 2023 report at the abbey of San Pedro de Cardeña.

P. Abad de Cardeña con la memoria de Patrimonio para jóvenes

Thank you very much everybody for your attention.

Have a nice summer and we are coming back next autumn.

Blog

International Museum Day 2024

Posted on 06/06/2024

FROM CHILHOOD TO YOUTH. THE JOY OF SEEING OUR TEAM MEMBERS GROW

Years ago, at the very beginning of Patrimonio para Jovenes, some families joined our activities with their children and these children are not children anymore.

Currently, they are an important part of our content creation team. As an example, in the photo you can see Carlos Odériz 10 years ago.

WN&

Carlos is now a Psychology student. At the end of 2023 he was chosen as our association’s representative to prepare the event of International Museum Day

He was enthusiastic about the proposal and look where he is now!

Museums for Education and Research

This was the motto for 2024. Our proposal: under a watchful eye, museums are an ideal place to delve into any area of knowledge in which one is interested.

So, we proposed to Carlos that he analyse the permanent exhibition and, from the perspective of his interests as a Psychology student, choose a series of artworks to analyse character traits and themes.

He had been given very few guidelines. He had a lot of freedom to choose and organize his speech. Among the guidelines: that his presentation didn’t last more than 40 minutes, that he did something very personal, that his presentation and the moment created, were something unique. That he created an experience. “Data is forgotten, stories remain” was our mantra.

Carlos dispensed with the works in which faces are a prototype and took the visitors up to the second floor, which is an area of the museum with beautiful drawings, however, it is often forgotten by public.

Among the chosen works, this image that is seen above and the following one are of the actress Vera Vergani.

Vera Vergani

Some information about her is available in Spanish on Gustavo de Maeztu Museum website.

Carlos also talked about different self-portraits of Maeztu, and here you can see one of them.

Autorretrato de Gustavo de Maeztu

A DAY TO REMEMBER

It was a lovely morning, full of good moments. Many people from Estella and Pamplona attended, as well as Carlos’s friends and family. Some people were visiting this museum for the first time and for us it was a great joy to be the cause of this discovery.

Público durante la visita en el Día Internacional de los Museos

Everybody applauded a lot at the end and many stayed asking Carlos questions and discussing ideas that arose around his presentation. Everything that a face, a gesture, a look or any other element of body language shows may spark new conversations.

Iniciio de la visita

For Carlos this was a very personal experience, which allowed him to create an affective bond with the portraits he had chosen. This was also the case of the experience lived by the students from Soria and their activity Proyecto Vozmediano. You can read about it in Spanish here.

We are very happy about this experience and we hope to keep enjoying this and other museums for many years to come.

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Report 2023 Patrimonio para jóvenes

Posted on 19/04/2024

We are proud to say that our 2023 report is available now. Please, share and enjoy!

Click here:

2023 Report

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Finalists at #InnovatorOfTheYear23 Project #FRH

Posted on 19/12/2023

Proud to announce we are finalists at the #FRHInnovatorOfTheYear project.

Thanks to Future for Religious Heritage for this recognition.

We really appreciate all the work done by our great team. Especially to Lucía Ruiz Ullate

Ana Zabalegui

and José Luis Martínez Arce fotógrafo.

We also thank Pilar Ortuño del Fraile and Tasio Ranz for the graphic design

Cartel diseñado por Pilar Ortuño del Fraile

CARTEL DEL EVENTO DEL 16 DE SEPTIEMBRE EN SAN PEDRO DE CARDEÑA

We will continue working on this project with great care and we look forward to travelling to Krakow in september

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Looking while people look

Posted on 18/05/2021

“The Oriental Institute (OI) was founded in 1919 to be an institution that studied the ancient cultures of the Middle East at the University of Chicago. Its collection holds more than 350.000 artifacts and its mission is to preserve, facilitate research and educate”. This information, the first that guests read when entering the galleries, is etched into my mind. It is not a surprise as I must have read it a hundred times.

Some months ago, while in my mission to discover all the museums in Chicago, I arrived at the Oriental Institute for the first time. At the time, the OI was one of the first in the city to reopen. Although there were masks, social distancing, and time constraints I was extremely happy to be back inside a museum after so long. That might have also affected my boldness when after my visit I went to the lobby and asked… “Do you have any openings?” Luckily for me, they did. And after a few emails, interviews, and safety training I donned my uniform and started my job as a gallery attendant.

My main role is to ensure guests’ comfort and safety while in the museum. Currently, this sometimes means having to remind visitors of Covid-19 regulations -my most uttered phrase must be “please Sir/Madam, could you please adjust your mask?-. But in general, my shifts are divided between answering questions, reading museum labels when the galleries are empty, and just seeing how people look and engage with the artifacts. I was surprised by how much I learned just by doing the latter

When I started my journey at the Oriental Institute I expected certain behaviors and questions. After all, I had been to many museums in my lifetime and I had interacted with gallery attendants before. And while people do ask for the bathroom, Wifi password, exit, closing time, or Covid-19 policies, these questions are not as common as I thought. Most guests approach me curious about the artifacts themselves. Sometimes, these encounters make for funny anecdotes such as the young man who asked me to explain the whole Mesopotamia exhibit for him because “he did not want to read anymore”. Or the student who argued with me that the cuneiform tablets could not be translated because “how would they know how to understand them if they were not there?”.

However, the most common question has always been “is this an original?”. This was asked in reference to almost anything: the mummies in the Egypt room, the ceramics in the Mesopotamia gallery or the gigantic bull of Persia -to name a few- were all artifacts I got quizzed about. Furthermore, visitors from very diverse backgrounds, ages, and behaviors in the exhibition would coincide in this question. From 12 year olds to to retired grandmothers.

The question in itself was not surprising. After visiting other museums in Illinois I saw that finding real-size reproductions of historical objects and environments was not uncommon. Some examples could be the White House in Abraham Lincoln’s Museum in Springfield or the Jazz Club in Chicago’s History Museum. It was not surprising then for guests to question whether the lamassu they saw was or not the real deal.

However, what perplexed me was the reaction to my affirmative answer – artifacts are real besides a few labeled casts made in a different color-. There was amazement and glee when considering the age of the objects -many even quoted how smart “their ancestors” were – but the casts also had positive reactions. There was no loss of interest in an object because it had been identified as a copy, people would still photograph it and spend time observing it. Authenticity did not seem to matter or at least it was not needed to appreciate the object.

Questions regarding authenticity and visitor expectations are more complex than what I can conclude by just watching people for a few months. But they have now resurfaced in my mind after this experience. I have enjoyed my work as a gallery assistant and now that my days in Chicago come to a close I will be sad to abandon it. I leave hoping that my time in the OI has helped guests enjoy and reclaim the physical space that is a museum.

I would like to thank my coworkers -especially Miguel for posing with me for the photos- for all their conversations, and my boss Vick Cruz -Manager of Visitor Services and Security– for taking the amazing photos that enhance this article.

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EUROPEAN HERITAGE DAYS. JAVIER, NAVARRA, SPAIN

Posted on 11/10/2020

A very special European Heritage Days

By the end of June, in agreement with the city hall of Javier, we decided to let the 2020’s European Heritage Days start, with this year’s slogan “Education and Heritage”. Everything was new and uncertain, the confinement during spring had just ended, so we were facing summer with as much excitement as uncertainty there was. Said this, the best option was to design a safe yet versatile plan for the Heritage Days, that could easily adapt to whatever may the future bring. We had to do it, we had to do it for culture, for life, for giving work opportunities, even if they were small and according to our resources, but we had to get moving. So, the first thing we did was to connect our volunteers with the town of Javier, with its heritage and with its people as well.

Get to know each other, undertake, create

Once the program was projected with guided visits to the castle, summer concerts previous to the saved dates, talks about sailing during the times of Saint Francisco Javier, and the main course, the outing of the paintings of the Dance of the Death at the Chapel of Saint Christ of the Castle of Javier, we presented it to the town at an open session in the City Hall.

Visiting over and over again

One of the things that the volunteer have done, especially María and David Rodríguez, was to learn a lot about the castle. They were present during many days of guided visits, they got plenty of reading material and then they rehearsed those visits on their own.

The organizing team next to the city mayor and one of the town councilors.

Another one of the studied spaces was of course, the Chapel of Saint Christ, or the Christ of the Smile. A small, non-visitable space. Why is that? Mainly for two reasons, the first one – at least chronologically- to preserve the paintings of the dance of the death, which are very close to the human touch. The second and nowadays most important reason, is that this space that invites to meditation and observation, makes it impossible to keep safety distances. It’s a heavy reason due to its sanitary importance

Those curious reflections seen on the picture have a reason: that photograph is taken from a superior floor and through a glass wall from where all the Chapel and its paintings are visible

All the volunteers visited the chapel and learned about the iconography and peculiarities of these pictures in Javier

Creative Implication. Fundamental for Patrimonio para Jóvenes.

Besides learning, in our Association it is very important to create. We look for implication, creation, thinking for a better support and communication of heritage to new public spaces. We had a challenge in our hands: We have to preserve, but how can we spread something that’s closed to the public? There are many precedents and examples of this dilemma. Probably one of the best known in Spain is the case of the Altamira Caves.

With this idea on mind, with the help of the photographer María Cantero, and the architect Juan Roldán Marzo, we prepared an expositive design that would exteriorize the paintings of the Dance of the Death. It was fundamental that they could be seen closely, yet in open and safe spaces, and people could interact with them to have a better understanding of this iconography. Here are some pictures of the process.

On the left, Laura Guindano mayor of Javier, talking with photographer María Cantero

María Cantero during her photographic tasks

This wasn’t an easy job for María Cantero. The space is very tight and dark too. It took many hours in the chapel and overall, a lot of time focused on the edition and adjustment of the images.The result was extraordinary and that helped Juan Roldán on the creation of individual panels from which the skeletons could be removed. Before going through all the paintings, he presented in Javier a prototype created with the help of his friends from “Rótulos Diper”

Laura Guindano with Juan Roldan on August

Until the day arrived, the music…

We thought it was a good idea to create previous events to the European Heritage Days. A jazz concert in the terrace of a bar in a summer evening was something convenient, nice and relaxing. So we did that.

We called our friends form Pamplona Jazz, who had already been with us on February in ‘”In love with a museum ” Back then, we couldn´t suspect the circumstances that would bring us together again.

Nevertheless, the important thing was the reencounter with Iñaki, Luisa and Ramón, and how great their music sounded, leaving astonished to all of those who hadn’t listened them before.

Here are some pictures of that August evening.

They day finally came

We had walked a long road for months. Bonds were tightened, Knowledge grew, we enjoyed it fully, and September 25^th came and left as any other day, but leaving great memories behind.

That Friday we didn’t have the usual summer weather of past Heritage Days. It was cold, on Saturday it rained, but we felt the warmth of the Heritage, of the fruits of a thoughtful work done for a long time. That Friday 25^th we greeted members of the Institute of Naval History and Culture, Eduardo Bernal and José Cánovas. They talked about “Sailing in the times of Saint Francisco Javier” and the circumnavigation of Magallanes-Elcano”.

Cánovas. They talked about “Sailing in the times of Saint Francisco Javier” and the circumnavigation of Magallanes-Elcano”.

We filled our allowed capacity. Everybody helped out by having a seat and keeping a distance, and the hotel staff meticulously took care of the distribution of the room for the people’s safety. The next day, people arrived to enjoy the guided visits that María and David had rehearsed so much

An European Heritage Days that we will never forget

It was lovely to watch the support and affection they received from their firends. All of them came to Javier to discover the castle in a very special way. The public that day was heroic. Bad weather, rain and cold, and yet they were there

David Rodriguez during one of the visits

The groups of each guided visit, normally with a máximum of 20 people, were now reduced to 15. That meant we had to put extra work because the demand was bigger, but we delightfully complied.

I myself was in the porch of the building next door explaining the externalization of the Dance of the Death

María Odériz preparing everything before the public’s arrival

General view of the exhibition room with the paintings of the “Dance of the Death”

One of the essentials of this exhibition was, as I said above, interaction. To get people to enjoy and understand, and therefore, to leave with the feeling of discovering a new face of Javier, appreciating its heritage a little more. There were very fun moments and many people took pictures. Here are some of our volunteers.

In the afternoon we had scheduled a visit to the “molinaz”, ( The molino) the ruins of an ancient mill next to Javier. A walk by a gorgeous river, but unfortunately they day didn’t help us. Our volunteers went through the route and verified that there was too much mud and tangled roots that could end in a dangerous accident, specially four our elderly visitors.

We opted to listen to the talk at the City Hall, and it was great to listen to Enrique Galdeano. In a pleasant yet insightful way, he made us realize about many dilemmas that come up during art restoration, about our experiences facing ruins and the meaning of ancient buildings through time.

At last but not least, with Jorge Feito , Technical Manager Mining at Geoalcali a present and on-line talk about “Nurturing the earth”, because landscape is part of our heritage as well, and knowing how to take care of the field that surrounds us is very important.

The only thing left to say is that finally, for another year, we’ve peaked. Thank you all for coming, Thanks to the town of Javier for trusting Patrimonio para Jóvenes on the management of this European Heritage Days.

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