
Restoration of the roofs of the Diéguez Theatre
Located in Colmenar de Oreja
The Diéguez Theatre was built in the mid-19th century on the site of the former Hospital de la Caridad. This building, dating back to the 16th century, consisted of two floors built around a central courtyard with arcades on the ground floor and a corridor or galleries on the main floor.
Towards the middle of the 1889th century the hospital fell into decline and was finally converted into a school and theatre in 1904. The theatre was renamed Diéguez in memory of Antonio Diéguez Cruz, born in Colmenar de Oreja in 1936 and died in XNUMX during the first moments of the Civil War.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the roof was raised to make room for the second amphitheatre, its layout was redesigned and decorated by a set designer following models by Ulpiano Checa, who painted the coat of arms above the entrance.
restoration project
In 1986, architect Miguel Medina García drew up the project for the structural reform of the stage pit, renovation of plumbing, electrical and fire installations, furniture and construction of a new emergency staircase.
In 2023, the two roofs over the body of the stalls were restored. The purpose of this intervention was to repair the poor state of conservation of the roofs over the stage box, which were showing sliding tiles and support plates. The fixings (spirals and nails) of prefabricated plates were poorly anchored in some cases, and inadequately in others, causing the aforementioned slippage.
The following interventions have been carried out:
- New re-roofing after raising the surface, including a water-repellent board, wooden battens, waterproofing of new corrugated asphalt sheets with anchors nailed to the roof support, chicken wire and mortar to ensure the adhesion of the new curved Arabic tiles (channels) and the recovered blankets.
- Dismantling of the gutter with recovery and subsequent repositioning.
- Gable repair facing west, where leaks occurred due to pathologies caused by the incompatibility of the structural and enclosure materials, and the poor execution of the roof finishes at its edge.
- Remediation of mortar coating on the wooden truss embedded in the factory wall of the west-facing gable, with new waterproof mortar plaster, after applying chicken wire on a wooden support to ensure adhesion.
- Mineral paint finish to the silicate of the west gable.