Sixteen gargoyles are affected \u2014 eight on each balcony. These are whimsically carved stone spouts: monsters, animals, and human figures with teeth, tongues and, in one famous case, an exposed anus. All of them are now pierced by the copper \u201clances\u201d described in the technical reports, their forms distorted yet photographed more than ever.<\/p>\n
Word has spread so quickly among pilgrims and tourists \u2014 who at this time of year stream into the square that marks the end of the Way of Saint James<\/a> (or Camino del Santiago as it\u2019s known in Spain) \u2014 that the once\u2011ignored gargoyles have become selfie backdrops and targets for zoom\u2011happy phones.<\/p>\n In mid\u2011April, Benxam\u00edn V\u00e1zquez \u2014 a retired journalist, scholar of Santiago de Compostela\u2019s three hundred gargoyles, and author of G\u00e1rgolas de Compostela (Gargoyles of Compostela) \u2014 was the one who blew the whistle\u2026 or opened the floodgates of outrage. The tarp covering the fa\u00e7ade began to come down \u201cin February,\u201d just as the second edition of his gargoyle guide was being released, and after Easter the restoration was fully exposed, he recalls. <\/p>\n Public anger spread quickly, and the veteran reporter alerted several media outlets to the architectural blunder. The backlash swelled like a torrent, from neighborhood groups to international architects and art historians. Among the strongest criticisms was an open letter by architect Carlos Henrique Fern\u00e1ndez Coto, president of the Association for the Defense of Galician Cultural Heritage (Apatrigal). In a lengthy statement, he argues that the solution to the humidity problems carried out for Turespa\u00f1a \u201cintroduces a visually aggressive element into one of the most sensitive ensembles in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n For if Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the Spanish region of Galicia<\/a>, the Praza do Obradoiro is its heart \u2014 a space \u201cof maximum historical and symbolic significance, where every element forms part of an extremely delicate balance.\u201d In such a place, \u201cwhich does not tolerate trivialization,\u201d Apatrigal argues, \u201cthe architect should aspire to go unnoticed.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cGalicians are unsettled by an intervention that does not understand the place,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez Coto says, arguing that \u201cin the 21st century, there are technical solutions that do not require such rudimentary expressions,\u201d such as \u201chidden conduits and integrated systems.\u201d This is, he stresses, \u201ca matter of social, cultural, and even civic importance.\u201d And \u201cit is not possible to take refuge in the technical or administrative approval of the intervention, nor in the authorization of the heritage authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n Coto tells EL PA\u00cdS that his organization is now \u201ccalmer, but keeping a close watch on what happens next.\u201d \u201cAre gargoyles even necessary nowadays to drain water?\u201d he asks via WhatsApp from Italy. \u201cLet them be left alone as a historical artifact, and let the water be collected and drained through hidden pipes, so that the work at the zero kilometer mark of Europe goes unnoticed.\u201d <\/p>\n The same word \u2014 \u201cvigilant\u201d \u2014 is used by an official spokesperson for Galicia\u2019s Ministry of Culture, headquartered on the very same Praza do Obradoiro, when asked about the controversy. Apatrigal, the Ateneo de Santiago, the Fonseca Historic\u2011City Neighborhood Association, and the Casino Cultural Association have also just sent a letter to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) in Spain to ensure it is aware that the figures have been altered.<\/p>\n As for next steps \u2014 and the three or four alternatives to the \u201clances\u201d that the project leaders and administrative authorities have agreed to study \u2014 the regional government offers a terse response: \u201cThe technical teams of the Directorate\u2011General for Cultural Heritage and Turespa\u00f1a are in permanent contact. For now, we have nothing to report.\u201d<\/p>\n The meeting between Galicia\u2019s director\u2011general for heritage, \u00c1ngel Miramontes, and the lead architect Fernando Cobos, along with several technicians, capped days of statements, reactions and justifications from every level of government \u2014 ministry, regional department and city hall \u2014 surrounding a project that, for four years, managed to pass through all filters and that residents have described, with a mix of mockery, anger and dismay, as \u201csodomitic.\u201d <\/p>\n Although the renovation falls under Turespa\u00f1a, the Galician regional government supervised it and issued a report authorizing the works, albeit with several observations. Before meeting with Cobos, the regional culture minister, Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Campos, explained that his technical team had warned that the fa\u00e7ade\u2019s humidity issues needed to be \u201canalyzed in detail with a specific document to find the best solution \u2014 not only from an architectural and functional standpoint, but also an aesthetic one.\u201d He then added that this documentation, which should have been provided by the ministry\u2011dependent agency, \u201cwas never submitted.\u201d<\/p>\n Turespa\u00f1a, for its part, responded in a statement that the work was included in the Conservation Master Plan, which the regional government approved in 2022 and which \u201csets the guidelines for all interventions on the building.\u201d \u201cAs with all cultural\u2011heritage conservation projects, the different options and solutions are the result of rigorous study by those responsible, taking into account long\u2011term preservation, material compatibility and minimal intervention, in line with national and international conservation standards, reinforcing the project\u2019s quality and soundness,\u201d the state agency argued. <\/p>\n According to the regional culture minister, the installation of the pipes is \u201creversible\u201d and causes \u201cno irreparable structural damage.\u201d<\/p>\n Dolores Herrero \u2014 author of La g\u00e1rgola y su iconograf\u00eda (The Gargoyle and Its Iconography) and one of Spain\u2019s leading experts on these sculptures<\/a> \u2014 traveled from Madrid to Santiago the weekend after the emergency meeting between the Galician regional government and Turespa\u00f1a to see the damage for herself. She says she found \u201chorrified people,\u201d art lovers who \u201cliterally cried,\u201d devastated by what they saw. The use of pipes, she explains, is not new in Spain, though typically the nozzles are far smaller; in France, she adds, \u201cyou would never see anything like this.\u201d For her, the intervention shows no respect for the artwork and amounts to an attack on \u201can exceptional iconographic ensemble.\u201d<\/p>\n In heritage conservation, Herrero insists, solving a technical problem is not enough \u2014 how it is solved matters. A gargoyle, she says in her latest Gargopedia video<\/a>, \u201cis not just a drainpipe,\u201d but an image that provokes emotion like any other work of art and deserves protection. \u201cEvery shape, every gesture, every detail carries a story,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you touch a gargoyle, you are not just touching a drain \u2014 you are touching a piece of heritage that belongs to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7W4FLFBVDNAW3LL4A2UNQQ2NEI.JPG\")
Gargoyles on the left side of the fa\u00e7ade of the Hostal dos Reis Cat\u00f3licos, considered the oldest hotel in Spain. They appeared following restoration works.
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Three of the eight gargoyles on the right half of the fa\u00e7ade, including the anthropomorphic one that became the focal point of the controversy.
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