The Aliens of Palencia Cathedral (Spain)
There are two ‘aliens’ in the ‘Unknown Beauty’ cathedral in Palencia (Spain). I mentioned them some time ago, but when I passed by a few days ago, I took the opportunity to photograph them again. During the restoration of the Puerta de los Reyes (The King’s Gate) in 1995, architect Fernando Díaz-Pinés, a professor of architecture at the University of Valladolid and a science fiction enthusiast, decided to include two sculptures inspired by the xenomorphs from the Alien saga in the Cathedral of San Antolín.
They can be seen at the top of the door, but you have to look closely. Two figures carved in artificial stone clearly date the restoration work, thus avoiding any confusion with the original art. They are located on the upper outer archivolt of the door and face each other, separated by a flower. The architect was inspired by Alien 3 (released in 1992) when designing them. The stonemasons faithfully followed his sketch, which served as a kind of ‘licence’ to mark the era of the work. And there they are: two little aliens staring at each other.
This type of anachronism in restorations is a Spanish heritage tradition. For example, in Palencia Cathedral, there is a gargoyle depicting a photographer with a bellows camera, which was created by the renowned architect Jerónimo Arroyo in the early 20th century. In Salamanca and Calahorra, modern cultural references in the form of astronauts and mobile phones also appear.
