The tower of the parish church of Santiago El Mayor of Totana projected a museum that will identify and disseminate the history of the city, its origins and customs, and cultural, sociological, economic and environmental values ​​associated with the temple.
The draft "Musealization Tower" will take shape in the coming months under the joint agreement between the Ministry of Education, Culture and Universities, the Consistory and the Diocese of Cartagena, with a total investment of nearly 66,000 euros;
and allow to value cultural heritage of Totana and expand a new tourist offer.
This culture initiative was presented today at a ceremony attended by the director general of Cultural Heritage, Maria Comas, the mayor, Isabel Maria Sanchez, the parish priest of Santiago El Mayor, José Ruiz García, the project architect, Francisco Guerao, and the official chronicler, Juan Canovas Mulero.
The tower of the temple is a building restored a few years ago, is one of the reference symbols of the city;
and meets the attractive enough to be a reason to visit for its monumental and historical values.
This museum aims to become a starting point for other routes of monumental historical and landscape value and external routes to be organized in Totana.
The exhibition ride to the local population and foreign visitors offered includes five levels in each of its plants: will be made climbing the stairs of the tower, so that the visit includes each of their spaces at different levels, will be dedicated to exposing different themes and content.
The project includes the museum acting on the inner dependencies of the temple tower, so that access by the winding stairway consisting of 88 steps contemplated;
and this rise the visitor is first with the "Chapter House", then the "Coro Alto," added space in the 1940s.
Some sections above, is called "the couple room" where the official presentation of the draft musealización- was performed, where all the fullness and extent of the elegant brick walls infrastructure is contemplated.
This room is closed with a slender dome, on which, in part of it, stood the "Fourth Clock";
either from this section is accessed to the clock room and a little higher is now the belfry.
The bell tower and it becomes a sign of unusual scope and transcendence in the life of the residents of Totana;
and a key and fundamental element of the regulatory process of the spiritual and material life of the city;
while the presence of a clock accurately determines the passage of time.
Restoration work of this building were directed and coordinated in 2007 by architect Francisco Guerao Lopez, whose performances consisted not only in building structures, but also in the recovery, rehabilitation and enhancement of the interior spaces of the same .
The museum project aims to bring the identity and meaning of the parish church to visitors;
raising awareness of the influence of the Military Order of Santiago and present the significance of the tower along the centuries.
This museum is also intended to guide the visitor through the exhibition route in the process of building the tower and temple and their links to the main moments of religious social, political and Totana and introduce artistic elements that help visitors to internalize the demonstrations that have exercised faith and religiosity in this county over time.
The tower of the church of Santiago El Mayor is one of the most cherished symbols of the historic and artistic heritage of the city, which was restored under an agreement between the municipality and the Bishopric and whose budget was at the time the 344,000 euros.
The church of Santiago was built in the mid-sixteenth century and its tower dates from 1608. The temple plan is a basilica type, with three longitudinal ships, while the tower, over 28 meters high occupies the southeast corner of temple.
