Hi friends
Today I am not going to talk about any construction, or maybe yes, I do not know how to catalog it.
Being the daughter of a bricklayer, I see things a little differently and today I look at these workers, like my father on the scaffolding all day, with the materials up and down, their hands burned from cement and lime and with all his muscles sore from the hard work.
Today there are many cranes and elevators, machines to make the dough and even vaults to make the walls, I still remember when the formworkers twisted the iron and put the wooden walls to make the mold where the cement would go.
Plumb line in hand so that the lines of the beams are straight, with wooden scaffolding without support, always risking life.
My father always said that in every construction there was always some soul trapped for eternity.
Today I see them rebuilding this church at the foot of the sea.
They are on the roof replacing the old clay tiles with new pieces, passing them from hand to hand, knowing that they are doing an important job, as much as that of an architect or surveyor, their work is on site, sweating in summer and freezing in winter.
I think I miss the being who gave me life and love for architecture.
Well here you see them in this church, a 14th century church that was built with a lot of effort and out of ignorance or money, the stone was not suitable for a climate of rain, powerful winds and the saltpeter of the sea.
And here comes the time to talk about the material.
Sandstone that today, as I have mentioned above, is sick.
They call it the stone disease.
The sea, the humid environment and the pollution make this stone turn into sand and that this beautiful Gothic church is so sick that the works have to be eminent and urgently
Over the years there have been many touch-ups on her skin but none with good results, creating more damage than health to the stone.
Now they are treating her with all the advances that exist for this silent disease.
That it has destroyed many reliefs that had its facade, apart from the structural danger that exists.
On the other hand, this cursed disease has also created a world of beauty and color, with undulations that seem wonderful to the profane, without realizing that it falls apart and loses its true beauty and purpose.
By losing its angles and purity, becoming more porous, all the wear it has becomes rafts for water, which in turn flood and moisten the sandstone more, degrading it more day by day.
The portico had to be adorned with reliefs, which some craftsman carved and shaped, with his art that he received from his father or a teacher creating leaves and figures according to the fashion or taste of the church.
Today lost for all of us, a great loss for our culture and history.
Here are some details.
I can only imagine the beauty of yesteryear when everything was perfect.
Today the stone has great damage and some looks like Gruyère cheese, many think that this gives character to this church and others almost cry when we see how in their disease that is silent for those who do not want to and see they let something of such value die.
But we are in luck, it seems that in the years that we live, the architectural treasures that have lived with us for so many centuries, quietly, are beginning to appreciate, giving us shelter when we needed it.
She will be restored, in that process she is and when the architects and surveyors carry out their cure, it will be they, the construction men who carry out this important work, leaving their sweat among masses, tiles and new stone curing techniques.
Those men who work with their hands from sunrise to sunset, in the heights even if they have vertigo.
With the hands worn down by the cement that burns the skin and the body bent by the postures.
But they are creators, not like the ancients but they also have their suffering.
In return they will leave us a church that will live again for centuries on the seashore.
How to title this entry
Sick stone, gothic church or just thank you for building for us ?.
I think I'll title it:
Souls trapped for eternity
For all those artisans who left their lives in the buildings and left so much beauty for posterity.
location Castro Urdiales-Santander Spain
Canon PowerShot SX730 HS
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