{"id":858229,"date":"2026-06-10T20:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/858229\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T20:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:18:17","slug":"sodomized-gargoyle-stuns-in-spain-but-its-not-what-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/858229\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Sodomized&#8217; gargoyle stuns in Spain but it&#8217;s not what you think"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bottom line: His renovation\u2019s a little creepy.<\/p>\n<p>An architectural update to Spain\u2019s oldest hotel has become the butt of a joke, with critics blasting it for depicting a \u201csodomized\u201d gargoyle \u2014 and the architect behind the design declaring that detractors need to see a shrink.<\/p>\n<p>Fernando Cobos said critics who\u2019ve slammed the \u201csuggestive\u201d rain pipes he installed in the backsides of stone carvings at the historic Hostal dos Reis Cat\u00f3licos in Santiago de Compostela simply have perverted minds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has been controversy because there is a buttock,\u201d Cobos said of the project at a recent architectural lecture, according to\u00a0the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\/europe\/article\/gargoyle-santiago-architect-restoration-5lp2nsg2z\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Times of London.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Critics say the gargoyle at Hostal dos Reis Cat\u00f3licos looks like it\u2019s being \u201csodomized.\u201d RTVE<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you see a sodomized gargoyle where there is a spout, there is not much I can do,\u201d he said. \u201cI am an architect, not a psychiatrist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cobos said he\u2019s\u00a0gotten a bum rap from artists and historians who say his design makes the gargoyles look like they\u2019re being\u00a0\u201cimpaled,\u201d \u201ccolonoscopied\u201d or \u201csodomized\u201d\u00a0by the copper pipes his team added to the ornate 16th-century structure earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>One of the whimsically carved stone waterspouts depicts a naked man crouching as rainwater flows from a pipe seemingly poking out of his rear end.<\/p>\n<p>An image of the plugged-up gargoyle sparked outrage online after the project was revealed in April, with critics calling it the world\u2019s creepiest renovation.<\/p>\n<p>But Cobos, who oversaw the project, brushed off the hole thing \u2014\u00a0calling it a \u201cridiculous controversy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A copper pipe was added to the stone decoration\u2019s backside. RTVE<\/p>\n<p>Hostal dos Reis Cat\u00f3licos in Santiago de Compostela was built in the early 1500s. Diego Delso\/Wikimedia<\/p>\n<p>The rump-centric revamp of 16 gargoyles was \u201cthe least bad\u201d solution to deal with intense rainfall that has damaged the building\u2019s stone decor, Cobos said at the Galician architects\u2019 association lecture earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>The late-Gothic former hospital  is one of  four nearby heritage landmarks, overlooks the city\u2019s world-famous cathedral and now functions as\u00a0a luxury hotel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Residents, conservation groups and the local heritage association have lambasted the design, calling it an eyesore and disrespectful to the monument.<\/p>\n<p>The backlash prompted Galician regional government officials to announce they\u2019re mulling alternative solutions, including the possibility of removing the spouts entirely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe water can be diverted somewhere else, but that comes at a cost and the building will pay for it,\u201d Cobos said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bottom line: His renovation\u2019s a little creepy. An architectural update to Spain\u2019s oldest hotel has become the butt&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":858230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[2513,648,1032,1033,171,71355,128,67,132,68,107],"class_list":["post-858229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architecture","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-optical-illusions","tag-spain","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116727664235471292","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}