In 1974, the German automotive company Volkswagen launched its new model to replace the Volkswagen Beetle: the Volkswagen Golf. An institutional referendum sweeps Greece, and on our small Atlantic island, in an even smaller town, Máguez, the Hermitage of Santa Bárbara is inaugurated on the sunny 7th of December. This temple, despite its small size, is full of great stories that I will detail today. For example, the altarpiece is the first and only work with religious motifs by César Manrique, but I don't want to get ahead of myself, so we'll go step by step.
The history of the chapel begins in 1723, specifically on February 10, where we have records that the priest Don José Luzardo requested permission from the Bishop of the Diocese to build a sanctuary in honor of Santa Bárbara, which would be granted two days later. With this, construction will begin in 1732 and end in 1769.
The 18th-century Hermitage would be expanded in 1957, where sadly the community's residents would not enjoy these reforms much due to a storm that would hit and destroy the church's structure in December 1970; this would make its demolition necessary.
From this year on, meetings will begin for the reconstruction of the temple, where the parish priest Don José Lavandera López, under his tutelage, creates the "Commission for the Construction of the Hermitage of Santa Bárbara," which includes resident representatives from each of the village's families and the mayor of Haría, Don Juan José Santana de León, who also holds a plenary session in the Harían town hall to find a site for the construction of the temple, as well as its square.
Six months later, on February 2, 1972, already with a site for the construction of the church, which was bought from Doña Dolores Romero Toledo, the most important part was missing: the monetary aspect for the construction. Funding had to be found. Thus, several days later, the town met again, now with a plan to reach the end, reduced to four points:
1. Each male resident must contribute 2,000 pesetas (12.02 current euros), with the possibility of doing so monthly.
2. Appoint a group of young people who will go house to house once a month.
3. Write letters to those born in the municipality for their collaboration.
4. See how to hire some bricklayers to start the works.
Although all attendees agreed, it was not fruitful mainly due to collection problems, as well as the management of a work of such magnitude and the materials for the beginning. Despite all these inconveniences, sadness did not take over the people of Máguez. It was in this way that, after studying all these aspects, it was decided to request a loan of 300,000 pesetas (1,803.04 euros), where 25 residents signed along with the mayor for the request of this. At the same time, the Cabildo provided a site next to the one purchased for the construction of the church, and where Don José Ramírez Cerdá will also provide 700,000 pesetas (4,207.08 euros) for the construction of the square and 900,000 pesetas (5,409.11 euros) for the paving of Santa Bárbara Street.
Finally, in May 1973, the works began, with a local resident of Máguez, Don Severo Villalba, as foreman and director. Although these works advanced only to the roof, they stopped again due to the lack of monetary disposition. Thus, after new meetings, the Cabildo began the work of placing the roof, at a cost of 200,000 pesetas (1,202.02 euros), of which the town put 170,000 pesetas (1,021.72 euros) and the bishopric 30,000 pesetas (180.3 euros). All this effort in having the Cabildo put the roof was, above all, because the majority of the local population, dedicated to agriculture, had had two consecutive bad years. Thus, the Cabildo, as of October 10 of this same year, decided to finish the works of the square and the church, where in this last one Don Luis Morales and Don Jesús Soto not only focused on the construction, but on embellishing the temple.
This is how César Manrique is incorporated, who at that time was working in Jameos del Agua, where he contributed the design of the mural, as well as the square adjacent to the church. It would be in the last months of 1974 when the mural went from paper to stone thanks to the "pickers" Eugenio Bonilla Martín, Rafael Betancor, Gines Betancor Betancor, and Benjamín Niz Dorta, all of them directed by Severo Villalba Betancor, who managed to transfer the Manriquean angels that will guard the tabernacle, made by Juan Brito, in an excellent way.
With all this, the construction of the Hermitage would come to an end and, today, 50 years later, it is still there, as a reflection of the recent history of a town that fought strongly despite the adversities that surrounded it. For all that, I would like, before finishing the article, to put the names of the residents who would make this construction possible, because, although the activity of César, Soto, and Morales is commendable, I believe that the people of the town of Máguez should also go down in history: Alejandro Barreto Perdomo, Gregorio Barreto Viñoly, Gines Betancor Pérez, Julián Cabrera Perdomo, Rafael Hernández Martín, José María Hernández Rodríguez, Manuel Lorenzo Curbelo, Zenón Luzardo Betancor, Feliciano Luzardo Viñoly, Matías Niz Luzardo, Jesús Rivera Pérez, Domingo Torres Martín, Eugenio Torres Peraza, Severo Villalba Betancor, and Juan D. Villalba Borges.
Image provided by Rafael Ángel Domínguez, thanks to Memoria Digital de Lanzarote.
