Restoration of Sant Francesc Xavier’s old Cemetery
Sant Francesc Xavier’s old Cemetery was the last home for the local people of Formentera who inhabited the island between 1757 and 1938. It is a building of a slightly distorted square sole of 22 meters sideways delimited by a masonry wall two meters high. Its interior includes five funeral chapels, an ossuary, a warehouse and an enclosure for other remains.
Despite being selective and not very extensive, the intervention has sought the construction to be genuine and easily identifiable, strengthening the building with the few original materials, but leaving visible all that patina left by the time.
The historical and archaeological study carried out in the building has provided the guidelines of some of the project solutions. Thus, it was decided to put the coat of traditional lime glazing only over the exterior part of the walls and the chapels which were built after 1838, i.e. after the extension of the original enclosure (1757-1838). This image graphically reveals how the frontispiece of the access was centered in the southeastern facade of the original enclosure.
The study of the original traces of the Royal Graces of the 17th century showed that the trace that connects the first original Milestones of the Media Legua granted to Marc Ferrer in 1695, crosses the enclosure of the Cemetery by the northwestern end. This oblique directive has been implemented within the enclosure by means of local sandstone pieces (marès) placed dry that make up a point of rest-contemplation.
To achieve greater visual permeability even when the building is closed, as well as to obtain a greater depth and protection of those who access it, a door design was carried out using language and material different from those of the historic building. This door is one of the most recognizable parts of the intervention and is not free of charge, since its permeability and lightness shows how simple it is to cross the threshold of life. The ephemeral of our existence.
