The Institute for Spanish Cultural Heritage (Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España (IPCE)), is a General Sub-directorate belonging to the Department of Fine Arts and Cultural Heritage, Archive and Libraries of the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Its aim is the research, conservation and restoration, documentation and dissemination of the goods which are part of Spain’s Cultural Heritage. In other words, the guarantor of the preservation and enrichment of Spanish Cultural Heritage, derived from the social commitment acquired by the State.
The IPCE elaborates the intervention criteria and develops adequate action protocols adapted to the nature of the different types of cultural goods. It also designs, manages and supervises conservation and restoration interventions in the cultural goods. As part of these interventions, it is worth noting those which can be found within the framework of the National Plans. The National Plans are tools which appeared when the competences regarding Heritage were transferred to the Autonomous Regions with the aim of studying the heritage goods and coordinating the actions to be taken for their conservation. Some of these plans include: the Plan for Cathedrals, Industrial Heritage, Defensive Architecture, of Cultural Landscape and Abbeys, Monasteries and Convents as well as of Traditional Architecture, within which this specific project can be found.
The IPCE has a vast bibliographic and documental legacy preserved in its Archive, Library and Photographic Library. This material is widely disseminated and put to the service of researchers and specialized technicians. Moreover, they also carry out training activities to bring Spanish Cultural and Historic Heritage closer to those interested in it.
In the field of research, their aim is to improve treatments, identifying risk factors for the different works, evaluating and implementing new preventive conservation techniques, archaeological studies, anthropological ones, etc.
All these tasks are possible thanks to a multidisciplinary team of specialists in different fields: architects, archaeologists, ethnographers, restorers, physicists, geologists, chemists, biologists, documentalists, IT technologists, librarians, archivists and conservation specialists, among others.