Justo Gallego Martínez, a resident of Mejorada del Campo, began to build a cathedral without any help in 1961, after he was expelled from the Cistercian monastery of Santa María, in Soria, for being ill with tuberculosis. From then on, this man who is now over 88 years old continues to work day by day on the dream of finishing this cathedral dedicated to the Virgen del Pilar. Justo is not an architect or a bricklayer, nor does he have training related to construction, there are no plans for the work, everything is in his head (or on the ground, which is where he says he draws his plans). The
Justo Gallego Martínez, a resident of Mejorada del Campo, began to build a cathedral without any help in 1961, after he was expelled from the Cistercian monastery of Santa María, in Soria, for being ill with tuberculosis. From then on, this man who is now over 88 years old continues to work day by day on the dream of finishing this cathedral dedicated to the Virgen del Pilar. Justo is not an architect or a bricklayer, nor does he have training related to construction, there are no plans for the work, everything is in his head (or on the ground, which is where he says he draws his plans). The work is done with recycled material and with the things that people donate. This endeavor led him to star in a 2005 Aquarius commercial highlighting his work. A short film has also been made about its cathedral and the Museum of Modern Art in New York dedicated a photographic exhibition to this original work. Although apparently you can no longer enter to see the cathedral (as seen in the short film) with admiring it from the outside is already something extraordinary.
Size: 5568px × 3712px
Photo credit: © Alberto Sibaja Ramírez / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: aquarius, bricklayer, campo, cathedral, cistercian, del, dream, justo, madrid, marí, mejorada, monastery, pilar, santa, spain, virgen
