If you see a sodomized gargoyle at this Gothic hotel, you need to see this instead, appalled architect says

1 hour ago 3

His renovation’s a little creepy — bottom line!

An architectural update to Spain’s oldest hotel has become the butt of a joke with critics blasting it for depicting a “sodomized” gargoyle — and the architect behind the design declaring detractors need to see a shrink.

Fernando Cobos said critics who’ve slammed the “suggestive” rain pipes he installed in the backsides of stone carvings at the historic Hostal dos Reis Católicos in Santiago de Compostela simply have perverted minds.

“There has been controversy because there is a buttock,” Cobos said of the project at a recent architectural lecture, according to the Times of London.

“If you see a sodomized gargoyle where there is a spout, there is not much I can do,” he said. “I am an architect, not a psychiatrist.”

Critics say the gargoyle at Hostal dos Reis Católicos looks like it’s being “sodomized.” RTVE

Cobos said he’s gotten a bum wrap from artists and historians who say his design makes the gargoyles look like they’re being  “impaled,” “colonoscopied” or “sodomized” with the copper pipes his team added to the ornate 16th-century structure earlier this year.

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.

An image of the plugged-up gargoyle sparked outrage online after the project was revealed in April, with critics blasting it as the world’s creepiest renovation.

But Cobos, who oversaw the project, brushed off the hole thing —  calling it a “ridiculous controversy.”

The rump-centric revamp of 16 gargoyles was “the least bad” solution to deal with intense rainfall that has damaged the building’s stone decor, Cobos said at the Galician architects’ association lecture earlier this year.

A copper pipe was added to the stone decoration’s back side. RTVE

The late-Gothic former hospital is one of four nearby heritage landmarks, overlooks the city’s world-famous cathedral and now functions as a luxury hotel. 

Residents, conservation groups and the local heritage association have lambasted the design, calling it an eyesore and disrespectful to the monument.

Hostal dos Reis Católicos in Santiago de Compostela was built in the early 1500s. Diego Delso/Wikimedia

The backlash prompted the Galician regional government officials to announce they’re mulling alternative solutions, including the possibility of removing the spouts entirely.

“The water can be diverted somewhere else, but that comes at a cost and the building will pay for it,” Cobos said.

Read Entire Article