This is the real deal with knobs on.
I give you :
In 1961, at the age of 29, he laid the first stone in the construction of a “cathedral” that he has built virtually single handed since then on a plot of land 50 metres by 20 metres that he inherited from his parents. It has been rated by some as perhaps the strangest building in the world.
This is no “model” cathedral and he is neither a qualified architect, nor engineer, nor bricklayer — he is a farmer. “The plans have only ever existed in my head” and have evolved over time in response to opportunity and inspiration.
The cathedral already has a dome (modelled on St Peters) rising to some 40 metres, some 12 metres in diametre — whose steel girders were raised with the aid of his six nephews using pulleys. He was unable to get the loan of a crane.
Most of the construction materials used are recycled (buckets, pieces of wood, plastic tubes, etc) — occasionally obtained from business and construction companies with excess materials for a job. Progress on the cathedral is therefore visibly marked by the nature and quality of materials that he acquires in this way. The columns are moulded using old petrol drums, the window arches carry the marks of the tires they were moulded in and bicycle wheels have been used as pulleys.
And the poor old sod fully expects it to be pulled down as soon as he shuffles from this mortal coil.
Did he ever finish the dome? I wonder if it will survive with all this snow about?
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