Collection of sacred art of the Ribagorça

The old church of the Assumption of the Pont de Suert, known as the Old Church, was the parish church of this town until the company ENHER financed the construction of the new temple, consecrated in 1955.

The constructive origin of this building is found in the Romanesque period, approximately in the twelfth century, although during the Baroque period (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) it underwent numerous modifications. This temple forms an architectural complex with the old Abbey Palace, from the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, which was the residence of the abbots of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Lavaix, and where we find the bell tower of the church.

Since 2001, the Old Church of the Assumption of Maria del Pont de Suert has housed the Collection of Sacred Art of Ribagorça, which includes various artistic disciplines (painting, sculpture, goldsmithing and the original altarpieces of the church). The Collection aims to disseminate a part of the cultural and artistic legacy of Ribagorça, in order to better understand the religious meaning of the history of our Ribagorça ancestors. The exhibitions that made the collection possible were: Christus, Kyrios, Sanctus, Maria, Regina, Hagios and the last, Lavaix.

Some altarpieces have been moved from small churches in the municipality and others originate from the temple. During the Baroque period, the production of altarpieces was important because they had the possibility of bringing the religious events faithfully represented. Somehow the viewer of an altarpiece witnesses the scenes of the life of Christ, of the Virgin Mary or the saints and perceives them as living and real people, close to their daily lives.