The Ricoh Hall in Medina Al Zahra already shows the splendor of the facade and is facing the end of the restoration

The final part of the job was to work on Interface From the living room, specifically in replacing the ataurex. There the panels had to be replaced which were decorated with compositions based on plant elements, which showed the tree of life, i.e Paradise Garden In abundant vegetation.

Some pieces have emerged from them that could be collected, while on other occasions, as the archaeological complex itself has already advanced, they have been replaced. The start of work is scheduled for the last weeks of 2024 and now the visitors who have arrived in this area of ​​​​Madinah Al-Zahra thanks to the program “Open for construction” They were able to verify that the facade was now free of scaffolding.

There they saw value substitution decorwhich would have been reshaped when the border was formed. However, in other places, it cannot be more than partial because it is only part of material.

These are remains that appeared in the first excavations carried out since 1940, when the architect Felix Hernandez began the restoration of what was already known as the city of the caliphate of Abd al-Rahman III. During this time they were taken to the workshop to be cleaned and treated and then joined together to fit together until they recovered. imagine creative.

Visitors have already been able to admire the almost completed façade, which forms one of the final parts of the Ricoh Hall reconstruction work. They do this first in the decoration above the main entrance, which contains it Five horseshoe arches With its corresponding instruments, which are currently closed for business. Technicians are now working on the five columns that support these arches and are protected by the works.

It is part of the image of the case, with its capitals Hornets’ nestcommon in Medina Al-Azharto. You can also see it in the blind arches that surround the main entrance, where all the materials found in recent years have been re-incorporated, and in the doorways through which visitors participating in the “Open for Business” program pass.

Standards

Although there is still work to be done in some areas, the appearance of the facade is already one of restored splendor. Its interest, as the management of the place has always emphasized, is in the artistic and historical aspect, but it also allows us to reconstruct how restoration standards have varied over the decades in which work has been done in the Medina, from procedures in the 1940s to the way of working that we have now. Yes, the work is done indoors, in one Side tilesalthough the work is also advanced in others, as visitors have confirmed.

repair Living room wallsWhich appears to visitors who participated in this program, which began in its current form in May. This is a new way to spread sponsorship legacy This makes it possible to access, under certain conditions and timelines, the spaces in which the work takes place, for unique interpretations as well.

The completion of the last works, closed but without a date or deadline, should mean the recovery of a symbolic space that was closed in 2008 to end the problems of moisture And complete the restoration of decoration.

Then the onset of the economic crisis led to the suspension of the project, which only began to recover in 2019, when the project was closed Independent government PP representatives signed an agreement with a private entity, the World Monuments Fund, to finance the work, which was carried out in several phases. It last opened in the fall of 2023, allowing visitors and already witnessing firsthand the moment of final return to normal life.