The great hall of the Torre-saura County Palace has been the setting for the public presentation of the book Torre-saura Grâfica. Álbum familiar del condado de Torre-saura durante la segunda rama Olives. A publication edited by Talaia Cultura SL and promoted by Fundación José María de Olives y de Ponsich, Conde de Torre-saura. Its authors are the historians Alberto Coll and Antoni Camps Extremera.
140 pages, 12 chapters and 245 photographs. Torre-saura Grâfica is a visual chronicle of the history of the County of Torre-saura and of the Olives family, one of the most representative of Menorcan nobility. It includes portraits, everyday scenes, family spaces… It is an intimate, well-documented look at the main characters of that lineage, allowing the historical narrative to be completed. These are images that not only illustrate the family’s transformation but also the social and cultural evolution of their surroundings from Ciutadella.
It is the natural continuation of the book History of the County of Torre-saura during the Period of the Second Olives Branch (1818-1995) and is the result of the work done with the photographic archive of the County of Torre-saura. Over the past year, work has been carried out on digitizing hundreds of photographs, negatives, slides, and carousels. To make this possible, careful restoration work was required, as the vast majority of the photographs were found to be stained, moldy, or in very poor condition.
On the other hand, a great effort has also been made to contextualize each of the photographs. For the vast majority, the names of the people depicted, the date they were taken, or the circumstances of the portrait were unknown. Numerous oral sources had to be consulted to provide as much information as possible for each image.
Both the restoration, the research, and the editing and publication of it all reaffirm the Foundation’s objective of preserving and disseminating the county’s historical memory and of promoting its cultural heritage. This was highlighted by both the book’s authors and the vice president of the Fundación José María de Olives y de Ponsich, Conde de Torre-saura, Guillermo de Olives Olivares.
Restored painting
An event during which a recently restored painting from the county’s documentary archives was also shown to the public. According to the Foundation’s historian and head of historical heritage, Antoni Camps Extremera, it is a painting that was found in very poor condition. There were almost no references to it… except for one detail: the shield marked on the bed that appears in the background of the portrait, which shows four small shields. A symbol that has been the starting point for a historical investigation, leading to the discovery that it is a painting of the former noble Vigo family. From the clothing of the characters depicted, it has also been possible to deduce the period in which it was painted, between 1815 and 1817.
For its artistic value and to showcase the restoration and research work carried out on it, the painting will be included in the palace tour, which has been open to the public during the spring and summer months for the past three years.
