Photo: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Belén de Arturo Baltar

Permanent nativity scene by the sculptor Arturo Baltar in the chapel of San Cosme y San Damián in Ourense, with more than 100 fired clay figures.

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About the museum

The Arturo Baltar nativity scene is one of the best-known works of Christmas in Ourense. The sculptor Arturo Baltar began modelling it in 1967, and since 1980 the chapel of San Cosme y San Damián, in the centre of Ourense, has housed it permanently in an annex that is now part of the Espazo Expositivo Arturo Baltar.

The chapel was founded in 1521 by the surgeon Juan Lérez as a small church and hospital, and has a Renaissance façade showing the medical saints Cosme and Damián. After a complete renovation, the building gained an annex to house the work.

The ensemble brings together more than one hundred hand-modelled figures in fired clay, between 20 and 25 centimetres tall. As well as the nativity scene, they depict trades, games in the squares, taverns and farm work in Ourense of past decades, with hórreos (granaries) and petos de ánimas (roadside shrines to souls) as the backdrop. The space is completed with murals by Xaime Quessada and friezes by Virxilio.

Highlights

More than one hundred hand-modelled fired clay figures by Arturo Baltar
Scenes of everyday life in Ourense: trades, taverns, games in the squares
Chapel of San Cosme y San Damián, founded in 1521
Murals by Xaime Quessada and friezes by Virxilio
Free admission

Permanent exhibition

Belén de Arturo Baltar – Permanent nativity scene of more than one hundred fired clay figures, combining the Nativity with scenes of traditional life in Ourense.