Will Bureaucracy Fell Spain’s One-Man Cathedral?

Almost fifty years ago, Justo Gallego wanted to thank God for curing his tuberculosis, so he decided to build a cathedral — by himself. Since then, the former monk, who has no construction training, has labored every day on his 86,000-sq.-ft. (8,000 sq m) creation in the center of Mejorada del Campo, on the outskirts of Madrid. Today the cathedral is more than half done and has made its creator and his hometown famous throughout Spain. But at the age of 85, Gallego knows he will never see his project to the end. His hope is that the local diocese will take it over when he’s gone. Instead, a problem with zoning permits may mean Spain’s one-man cathedral will have to come down.

For almost half a century, Gallego has relied on his instinct and “God’s guiding hand” — no blueprints, no equipment — to build the pillars, walls and arches of his cathedral, mostly out of discarded construction materials. It comes complete with two towers, a crypt, cloisters, offices, a library and a 130-ft.-high (40 m) dome modeled on the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. “They called me crazy and laughed at me, but look at it,” Gallego says defiantly as he paints a steel beam on one of the 147-ft. (45 m) towers. “I started with a cross and then just kept on building.”

But the future of Gallego’s legacy is uncertain. He is building his cathedral, which isn’t officially recognized by the church, without any permits. Municipal authorities admit privately that for decades they looked the other way as Gallego raised his structure only a couple of blocks from city hall, in part because he is now beloved in town, but also because few actually thought he would succeed.

That tactic won’t work for much longer, though, as Gallego prepares to leave his incomplete masterpiece to the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares, which will have to decide whether to keep building the cathedral or destroy it. “What Don Justo has done is admirable. I kneel before his faith,” says Father Florentino Rueda, vicar and legal adviser of the diocese. “But this construction is illegal, which means we could inherit a problem.”  Read Article

By Andrés Cala