Normally, I get a bit queasy when a Catholic church is re-purposed for something else. But in this story from Spain that I wrote up for PJMedia‘s Faith section, the abandonment of the church wasn’t from a lack of faith, but from a lack of people, owing to closing of a munitions factory.
Forced to choose between a full congregation and the necessity of a munitions factory to support a war effort, one supposes the Church would rather have an empty building.
While the transformation of this space by a Madrid-based artist into a psychedelic skate park isn’t exactly reverent — and it’s a bit racy — but it’s also rather beautiful.
Here’s a taste:
Now covered in rainbow murals that represent San Miguel’s idiosyncratic iconography, walls that once rang with song and prayer now echo with the sounds of shouts, cheers and skate wheels.
Changing demographics and shifting populations over the 2,000 years of Christianity around the world have caused many churches to be built, and many more to be abandoned.
Some of those have continued to crumble and decay, while others have, like Saint Barbara — now La Iglesia Skate — have become civic buildings and private homes.
Click here to read the rest and see a video interview with the artist, who calls it his “personal Sistine Chapel.”
Image: Courtesy La Iglesia Skate Facebook page
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