Saragosse (Spain). Spain loves symbols. This is why on April 16, the anniversary of the death of Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), the president of the Aragonese government unveiled the project of the brand new Goya center in Zaragoza. Symbol still, as for the opening year of the site scheduled for 2027, a year before the bicentenary of the artist’s death.
The Center, which invests the former courthouse in the city, will be a full -fledged cultural establishment, of course, but also an extension of the current Goya museum. It will host the works belonging to the museum which are currently presented at the Aljafería Palace in the form of a temporary exhibition.
This new place is especially imagined as a multisensory space. Won by the Aragonese architect, Antonio Lauren, in collaboration with the museographer Boris Micka and the engineering firm Idom, the Goya Center is both a museum in the classic sense of the term, and a space of visual and sound experience.
The desire for modernization will start from the outside of the building, with a dynamic facade incorporating a high definition LED network, continuously diffusing animated works of Spanish, visible from the outside.
Inside, the 2,400 square meters of the building organize themselves on five levels. The first three floors will fulfill various functions: administrative and storage spaces, not accessible to the public, will be relegated to the first level; A multipurpose room intended to accommodate events will take place in the second; While the third, with individual balconies, will be dedicated to temporary exhibitions.
The last two floors will focus on the work and the figure of Goya. The fourth will offer a circular course structured in four permanent sections: “masters and influences in Zaragoza”, “Goya, first works”, “Independent spirit” and “critical look”. Finally, the fifth floor will plunge the visitor into an immersive experience with the “Quinta de Goya”, a sensory space that we can already imagine as an Aragonese version of the Atelier des Lumières.
But the adaptation of the judicial building built in the 19th century to technological requirements will not be without difficulties. To make room, the main architectural challenge will be the demolition of the roof and the upper floor of the building, in order to increase the height and to identify the space necessary for the installation of ventilation and air conditioning systems.
This architectural investment turns a heritage building upside down and thus reflects the will of the Aragonese region to strengthen its link with its emblematic artist. On the financial level, the project, public, is estimated at 7 million euros: which seems a little low given the work.
