A Saint? Builder Of One-Man-Cathedral Died
He started the construction in 1961 without plans and without a crane, was working alone, used only junk material from the nearby industrial polygon starting his workday at 6am, except Sunday.
At the age of ten, during the Spanish Civil War, he witnessed how communists fighting General Franco, shot priests and ransacked the church in Mejorada. This left him with little respect for the town's socialist administration.
Justo became a Trappist, contracted tuberculosis, was unable to pursue the ascetic Trappist life, and left shortly before making final vows. He promised to Our Lady of the Pillar that he would build a shrine if he recovered his health. When this happened, he started building on a plot of land inherited from his parents.
The imposing construction (55mx25m, 35m high) boasts a series of half-finished towers while the walls inside are decorated with frescoes.
When Justo began, people called him "the mad 'priest'," but he didn't care. "What I have done, I have done for the Lord,” Gallego said, “I have never been with a woman. For me the Church is my life, my wife, my child.”
The Spanish bishops refused to accept the Cathedral as church.
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