Disused church becomes rainbow-coloured indoor skatepark
Wednesday, December 23, 2015 @ 10:37 PM
A CHURCH in Asturias has been painted in rainbow colours and turned into a skateboarding park.
The 103-year-old Santa Bárbara church in Llanera, near Oviedo has been disused since the end of the civil war when the neighbouring weapons factory shut down and its workers stopped going there for worship, and has been gradually crumbling to rack and ruin.
A local man, Ernesto Fernández Rey, considered acquiring the attractive Romanesque-style church to turn into a business, but decided this would not be viable in light of the economic crisis – but he and his friends, all keen skateboarders, clubbed together to raise money to build a ramp inside where they could practise when it rained.
“I wanted to set up a property services business, but instead I started the association Brigada Iglesia ['Church Brigade'] and we created the Kaos Temple,” says Fernández Rey.
An indoor skatepark turned out to be a godsend – literally, in this case – since it rains in Asturias for over six-and-a-half months of the year.
Gradually, the skatepark grew in size within the confines of the church.
Famous Madrid-born street artist Okuda San Miguel found a photo of it online, contacted the association and asked if he could decorate it. Read more at thinkSPAIN.com
