architecture
Opus Dei JUSTO GALLEGO MARTINEZ: MOVING HEAVEN & EARTH When, in Mejorada del Campo, you ask around about the ‘cathedral’ that the 83-year-old former monk Justo Gallego Martinez has been building all by himself for 44 years now, and which draws packs of tourists to this little Spanish town 10 kilometres outside of Madrid, a tragicomic soap opera will be acted out in front of you, featuring the mayor, the parish priest, the village idiot, a defrocked monk, the Coca Cola Company, Romanian refugees, delighted visitors and perplexed locals. In the midst of this local drama, the more than 40-metre high, handmade ‘cathedral’ is an unassailable testimony to the ethic of labour and to superhuman resolve. Text and images by Veerle Devos, additional photos by Walter Bettens The structure that Justo Gallego Martinez is erecting in his birthplace is much more than an enormous church, it is complex that consists of a convent, library, offices and living areas. He has assembled everything by hand, using materials given to him by local companies and recovered objects like car tyres and buckets. He doesn’t use professional building equipment like cranes. No fixed plan guides the construction; no architect or engineer has ever been involved. Gallego Martinez does have his sources of inspiration, though, such as various Spanish monasteries, and, for his dome specifically, Saint Peter’s Church in Rome. The man is not an architect or bricklayer: he is a farmer. Every day he adds a little piece to his 82
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