JUSTO GALLEGO MARTÍNEZ
Justo Gallego Martínez gained worldwide renown as “God’s crazy bricklayer” for spending 60 years building a cathedral out of recycled junk, masonry and donated materials in Mejorada del Campo, Spain. Born into a farming family in 1925, his early life was heavily disrupted by the turmoil of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War, after which he became a novice in a Trappist order, but was forced to leave when he became ill with tuberculosis, preventing him following his vocation to the priesthood. He recovered from the disease though, something he credited to the Virgin of Pillar, and to give thanks Martinez began building a hermitage to her in 1961, working alone and without the benefit of scaffolding or machinery, on land he had inherited from his parents. Over time, the simple hermitage developed into a cathedral.
Martinez’s cathedral building was funded with rent from further farmland he owned, private donations, and a 2005 soft-drink advertisement. Its 12 columns and 28 cupolas were made out of oilwhile other materials were scavenged or donated by construction companies and a local brickworks. He never drew up formal plans for the building, but was guided by God, and never got planning permission or official authorisation. He simply levelled the site, drew out the shape of the structure on the ground and started building. Among the buildings that inspired him were St Peter’s in the Vatican, the White House in Washington and a variety of Spanish churches and castles. He had no knowledge of architecture or engineering and survived on “sweat and intuition”, with his “effort and tenacity grounded in his faith”. His working day began at 6am, and he would labour on his own for 10 hours a day, except on Sundays, although in his later years six family members and occasional volunteers also helped. By the time Martinez died last year, his cathedral was an 86,000ft2 (7,989m2) structure, with a 120ft (37m) dome modelled on St Peter’s, a crypt, side chapels, cloisters, a baptistry, library, and 2,000 stained-glass windows, and was still unfinished.
