Free-D

What characterises a pilgrimage? Perhaps it’s the difficulty of the journey itself which largely gives it value: after all Christ didn’t say “Take up your cut price Ryan air ticket and follow me.” And as if the idea of cheap travel between England and Salamanca weren’t frightening enough, it seems Alba de Tormes could become host to thousands of “pilgrims” visiting the crypt of Saint Teresa. Implicit in this would be discussions concerning the completion of Albas´ basilica, which is worrying.
Perhaps you’re surprised by this reaction: the basilica is at first sight a sort of truncated shell of a building, to put it bluntly – not a very attractive sight.
Building began in 1889 and was never finished due to lack of funds. That it should take so long I suppose shouldn’t be a shock; buildings of this sort aren’t exactly prefabs. Salamanca’s new cathedral for example took between 1513 and 1755 to complete.
Living in Alba de Tormes I pass by the Basilica nearly every day and it never fails to catch my eye. The pillars of the place are cut short and topped with the inevitable cranes nests. The main body of the building is open to the sky, a fact that Albenses have taken advantage of – using the space as an alfresco theatre for dramatic works of varying quality. There you can see the feisty jubilados of the villa ducal presenting their latest offering. Or you might see a local choir struggling to find its way, led by a maestro on a comically small Bontempi organ.
I suspect that the basilica in its present state has more meaning and is of more use to the inhabitants of Alba de Tormes than yet another expression of the churches´ richesse.
I’m not suggesting that all building in Spain should cease. It’s just that there’s something so very right about the frustrated upward thrust of those pillars. Indeed, what it lacks is almost its most important quality. It’s obvious that a completed basilica would point to success of a sort but sometimes I almost think that failure is the better option. It’s probably something to do with eating too much cress, attending boys brigade and seeing too many Alan Bennett plays – but there can be a real poetry in lack of success which is best expressed in the words of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu – “life is rather disappointing isn’t it?”
Well, better the disappointment of an unfinished basilica and a few genuine pilgrims who have struggled to get to an Alba de Tormes which presents its treasure – Santa Teresa de Jesus – modestly, as she would have wanted, than thousands of casual day-trippers gawping at a completed but meaningless basilica.
If you equate success with finance, as it seems most politicians do these days, then success is the worst thing that could happen to Alba de Tormes and Salamanca.