Fuendetodos places clear emphasis on its future connected to Goya. The Aragonese painter is the town’s main force for growth and its most valuable asset for building a community identity. Aware of this, the Zaragoza municipal authorities are set to promote several projects around the figure of the country’s most celebrated artist this year. Among the most ambitious and innovative is a plan to recreate the impact of the Black Paintings, the 14 murals Goya painted on the walls of his Madrid home, Quinta del Sordo, between 1819 and 1824. The proposal involves renovating an old hermitage that faces the town’s church and installing an immersive, virtual experience of these works there.
The project will be partly funded by European funds and mirrors the approach used at the Pablo Serrano Museum in Zaragoza during late 2021 and early 2022, when a camera obscura delivered a fully immersive viewing experience. The aim is simple: surround visitors with the brushwork and the universe that Goya created across those 14 canvases, which later inspired full-scale paintings. The mayor of Fuendetodos explained that a dedicated room will host projections while a separate space will place virtual reality at the forefront, underscoring the deep link between tourism and the life of the artist. The ambition is to breathe life into the local population through cultural investment.—-
Importance of tourism
Campo de Belchite has long dedicated itself to elevating the figure of Goya, with special attention to his birthplace and the family ties to Zaragoza, even if the origin is more coincidental than planned. Without Goya, this small municipality, home to roughly a hundred residents, would struggle to attract more than 20,000 visitors annually, a figure seen before the pandemic. The council understands that sustaining this appeal requires ongoing cultural initiatives that connect residents and visitors with the artist’s enduring legacy.
Strategic projects around Goya continue to move forward, including efforts to establish a museum that will showcase Goyesque costumes and other items curated by the city’s cultural association. A new tourism office is also part of the plan, consolidating Fuendetodos as a cultural destination that leverages the artist’s global resonance to fuel local growth. The project will be housed in the former hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Prado, a site with historical significance and potential for revitalization. This initiative sits within a broader strategy to reimagine the town’s cultural landscape and attract visitors who appreciate art, history, and immersive experiences.
All these plans are being funded in part by European funds redirected after a regional infrastructure decision affected the station union. The Fuendetodos town hall reported a total allocation of 1,003,046 euros, with a substantial portion allocated to the Black Paintings project. The renovation will cover a building of about 140 square meters, executed by the city council, with European funds underwriting the content development. The immersive experience will combine projections and new visualization technologies, including a virtual reality room within Quinta del Sordo to deepen visitor immersion into Goya’s imagined universe. The VR space will feature six 3D glasses and comes with a budget of around 270,000 euros for the room itself.
for December
The mayor stressed the town’s desire to boost tourism by offering more incentives for visitors to return. The hermitage sits adjacent to the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, a locale associated with Goya’s baptism, and the plan includes a coordinated construction timeline with the goal of inaugurating the project in December. The municipality chose the former Nuestra Señora del Prado hermitage as the new home for the space after the privately owned building donated its property to the council. The old church itself remains structurally fragile, with Gothic arches still visible but in a state of disrepair.
There is also a push to launch a dedicated website that will host a virtual engraving museum, gathering works owned by the city council. This is part of a broader path the town of Zaragoza has pursued for many years, committing to culture as a driver of development. A notable, large-scale project on the outskirts of Fuendetodos is a concrete skeleton left as a barrier, a nod to the Territorio Goya Society and their effort to recreate elements of Quinta del Sordo in the local museum, all funded by the city’s budget.
The Black Paintings project is not the sole effort backed by Fuendetodos’s Municipal Council around Goya. The council is advancing the renovation of an abandoned building that will house the Goyesco Museum, where works associated with Goya’s era will be displayed. The Fuendetodos Goyesca Cultural Association, along with their masks and large head sculptures inspired by Goya’s works, is central to the town’s cultural life and the annual Goya festivals held in September. The new museum and a nearby tourist office are planned to be financed with European funds, reinforcing the council’s commitment to cultural tourism as a pillar of development. With agriculture and animal husbandry playing a minimal economic role, the region views culture and heritage as the main engines of growth for a community whose population remains small yet spirited.