Priest sparks fury after deciding to spruce up his parish church… by painting ... trends now
A priest has sparked fury after he decided to spruce up his parish church by painting over 300-year-old frescoes that were granted listed heritage status.
Priest Hector Lunar innocently wanted to repaint the walls of the St Anthony of Padua church in the Teneriffe town of El Tanque ahead of Holy Week.
Little did he know that his minor renovation would spark outrage in the local community since the frescoes in his parish church are more than 300 years old and have been given protected status in 2011.
The regional government of the Canary islands even launched an investigation after Lunar hired workers to strip and repaint the interior walls of the church.
The frescoes were previously two decades ago, when they were covered with a protective paint on top to conserve them.
A priest has sparked fury after he decided to spruce up his parish church by painting over 300-year-old frescoes that were granted listed heritage status (pictured: contractors at work to paint over the frescoes)
Priest Hector Lunar innocently wanted to repaint the walls of the church of St Anthony of Padua in the Teneriffe town of El Tanque ahead of Holy Week
Little did he know that his minor renovation would spark outrage in the local community since the frescoes in his parish church (pictured) are 300 years old and have been given protected status in 2011
The regional government of the Canary islands even launched an investigation after Lunar hired workers to strip and repaint the interior walls of the church. The frescoes were previously two decades ago, when they were covered with a protective paint on top to conserve them
The church itself was built in the 16th century but burned to the ground in 1706 during a volcanic eruption. It was later rebuilt in the 18th century.
Lunar - who is said to have fled his home country of Venezuela in 2022 after he criticised the president Nicolas Maduro and was threatened for it - apologised for his mishap and claimed he didn't know about the protected status of the frescoes.
'No one told me about it. All I wanted to do was add another coat of paint to that bit of the church to get it ready for Holy Week events,' he told local newspaper El Dia.
He added that he only just found out about the church having listed heritage status, which means for any works on the building he should have consulted the regional government.
'If they need
