Justo Gallego has spent most of his 91 years building a cathedral in his town of Mejorada del Campo, near Madrid’s Barajas airport.

The problem is that nobody seems to want it.

“I do it out of faith; there is no other reason,” he says of the extraordinary structure he started in 1961 without any plans or sketches after failing in his ambition to become a priest. “It’s all in my head.”

Using recycled masonry and household rubbish items such as bottles, cans and old tyres, Mr Gallego has single-handedly built an extensive complex which includes a cloister and a cupola almost 40 metres high.

The construction combines artistic touches from frescoes and coloured-glass windows with rough edges where the fanatical nonagenarian’s vision remains unrealised.