The Sorolla Museum, a state-owned museum dependent on the Ministry of Culture, will temporarily close its doors from 1 October to undertake its architectural expansion and rehabilitation, a project that will require a total investment of 6.5 million euros and will be designed and directed by the Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos studio.
The Museum will be provided with a surface area of 2,000 new square metres, adjacent to the current centre, while the historic Martínez Campos building will undergo a comprehensive renovation to alleviate its wear and tear: in the future it will maintain its exhibition functions and the original character of its spaces will be preserved, restoring the historic elements of the Sorolla house, renovating its facilities and equipping all areas where cultural assets are exhibited with environmental control systems, for conservation reasons.
Furthermore, given that the Sorolla Museum is not currently accessible to people with reduced mobility or motor disabilities, the institution will be provided, both in the expansion spaces and in the House Museum, with the necessary accessibility conditions to meet the demands of the public.
It should be noted that the Sorolla Museum is located in the former family residence and studio of the Valencian painter, built by Enrique María de Repullés in 1911; it is a house museum that therefore maintains the original spaces and atmospheres of the author’s home and studios. These circumstances have generated limitations in the spatial and functional distribution of the building since it was converted into a museum in 1931, as well as implying the powerful attraction of being able to see the painter’s house as he and his family lived in it. At present, the centre does not have suitable spaces to house, for example, a restoration workshop, a cultural goods warehouse, educational workshops, temporary exhibition rooms, an assembly hall, a reception area for groups or a loading dock for cultural goods, among other rooms that are common in a museum infrastructure, although progressively, since the 1940s, exhibition rooms have been created on the first floor of the house, the domestic staircase has been partially remodelled, a drawing room has been set up, various exhibition rooms were structured and later converted into cultural goods warehouses, the gardens have been restored and, already in the 2000s, a museographic remodelling was undertaken and the studios were equipped with air conditioning systems. These were, in any case, always partial interventions; the one that will be undertaken this autumn will be the first comprehensive one.
The three main objectives of the upcoming extension-rehabilitation of the Sorolla Museum will be, therefore, the extension of the centre with complementary and contemporary facilities that will allow it to carry out all its functions normally and efficiently; the rehabilitation of the original spaces of the House Museum that, due to the passage of time, the obsolescence of the facilities or the lack of some infrastructures, need intervention; and to provide accessibility to the building.
It is planned to undertake a comprehensive project at the extension premises (number 68 on Calle Zurbano) to adapt it for museum use, with new spaces and services (temporary exhibition hall, cultural goods warehouse, restoration workshop, function room, loading dock for cultural goods, etc.); to rehabilitate and restore historic elements of the House Museum; to distribute new uses for the spaces that the centre will have (both in the House Museum and in the extension); and to integrate the three areas of the Museum (House Museum, offices, extension premises) from the point of view of connections, circulation and accessibility.
The renovated Sorolla Museum, which will have a surface area of around 5,500 square metres (more than double the current size), will open its doors, as planned, at the beginning of 2026.
