The College of High Silk Art and the Hortensia Herrero Foundation have reached an agreement to undertake the complete structural restoration of the building to which the Guild of Velluters owes its name. The agreement, whose signature took place yesterday afternoon, includes the transformation of the building into the Silk Museum of Valencia, and the works will begin, once the respective licenses have been obtained, after the summer. The estimated duration is 2 years.
The Hortensia Herrero Foundation is the driving force of a rehabilitation that, in addition to retrieving one of the most outstanding buildings in the Valencian architecture and culture, will contribute to the cultural and the spatial enrichment of a very special area of the historic centre of the city of Valencia. In fact, the original project had already been adapted and redefined once for the subsequent use of the building as the Silk Museum of Valencia.
The building of the College of High Silk Art dates from the 15th century, of a Gothic foundation and with a very important patrimonial wealth inside in the form of frescoes, murals and mosaics. The latter are especially important, as we can see on the floor of La Fama. In addition, this means retrieving a piece of both the material and the intangible heritage of the city, since the silk guild was a benchmark for the rest of the world and one of the engines of the Valencian economy.
This rehabilitation will be carried out in accordance to the project drawn up by the architect Fernando Aranda, which is derived from the Master Plan of the College of High Silk Art of Valencia, promoted by the Directorate General for the Valencian Architectural Worship Heritage in June 2005, as well as from the determinations of the Project for the Rehabilitation of the College of High Silk Art of Valencia, approved by the Conselleria for Infrastructure and Transport, which has been partly implemented.