Spaniard Justo Gallego Martinez (1925–2021) spent his entire life building a cathedral and he did it on his own. But this enigmatic man—who gained renown as “God’s crazy bricklayer”—from Mejorada del Campo, a small town close to Madrid, was not a lofty architect.
Rather, Don Justo (his honorific name) was raised in a humble, devout farming family and ever since he was a very young boy, he had a deep faith in God. His cathedral is not made of gold and costly stone but scrap and recycled materials that he collected himself. When he started building his cathedral in 1961, the word on the street was that he was crazy; his typical day, throughout the next six decades began at 3.30 a.m….