Difficulties and Opportunities for the Conservation of the Convent of San Bernardino in Cuenca de Campos, Valladolid. The Task of the ‘Rehabitar Tierra de Campos’ Foundation

The convent of San Bernardino in Cuenca de Campos, Valladolid, is a medieval building that has been suffering a process of deterioration since the beginning of the 20th century. The great economic difficulties of the congregation led them to sell the Mudejar coffered church ceiling in the 1920s. Today, the polychrome ceiling of the convent church is in the palace of the famous millionaire William Randolph Hearst, in California, along with many other treasures of Spanish art and architecture. The exclaustration of the nuns in 1967 and the sale of the convent to some farmers in the town accelerated its deterioration. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the building has been seriously threatened by ruin. In view of its deterioration and to guarantee its conservation, the ‘Rehabitar Tierra de Campos’ Foundation was created in 2018. This Foundation purchased part of the convent, with the support of numerous people concerned about the decline of many of the most unique heritage elements of the region, such as the traditional architecture. The purpose of the Foundation is to warn of the deterioration of the convent building and the architectural heritage throughout the region, while making its value known and placing emphasis on the risk of losing it. On the other hand, the aim is to find economic and social support for the building of the old monastery. The great difficulty for the Foundation is to obtain the necessary funds to stop the material deterioration of the building, as the region is subject to a great economic and population crisis: Cuenca de Campos is located in the center of the so-called ‘España vaciada’ (emptied Spain). At the same time, it is necessary to create a use for the old convent that allows it to continue, through a productive activity that guarantees its solvency and sustainability: the ‘Tierra de Campos Architecture Rehabilitation Center’.