This weekend the evaluation work has returned to the Cornide House within the intention of City Council of A Coruña to write a report that endorses your request to the Xunta to be classified as a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC). It is the highest level of protection for a heritage asset, which could speed up procedures and allow the property, owned by the Franco family, to become public ownership.
The professor in Art History who directs the evaluation, Alfredo Vigo Trasancos, has made a close observation of its facade, and he himself has climbed an escalator so as not to miss any detail of the ornamental elements of this jewel of Galician Rococo. Other experts in artistic cataloging are part of the scientific study, carried out by the Tomos company. It was commissioned at the end of 2019 and was truncated by the State of Alarm.
The expert’s first conclusions point out that Casa Cornide “should already be declared BIC” as it is considered a “unique structure” with “artistic values” that prove this distinction, which ultimately depends on the Xunta’s Department of Culture and Tourism.
The Casa Cornide has been owned by the Francs since 1963, after an irregular auction by the Barrié de La Maza family, according to a report by the Royal Galician Academy, which describes the operation as a donation. Its recovery to the public heritage is one of the key demands of the Polish Commission for the Recovery of Historical Memory.
The path of declaration as BIC is the option chosen first by the City Council of A Coruña for its recovery. However, the judicial process remains open to obtain the annulment of the sale to the Francs.
The history
The house located at 25 Damas Street in the Old City was designed between 1757 and 1760 by the military engineer Francisco Llobet. The work was commissioned by Diego Antonio de Cornide y Saavedra and was finished between 1760 and 1776. The polygraph José Cornide, son of Diego Cornide and one of the best-known members of the Enlightenment in Galicia, lived in that building, which in the year 1809, during the French invasion, it functioned as a town hall. In 1949 the property became part of the State heritage.
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