Journal Article

Holy Cross of Oleiros, the forgotten history of a church by Miguel Fisac

Esteban Fernández-Cobián

2026

Overview

The Santa Cruz church was built by Miguel Fisac between 1966 and 1971 in Puerto de Santa Cruz de Oleiros (A Coruña, Spain). It is a little-studied work that has always been in the shadow of its two older sisters: the church of Santa Ana and the chapel of the Asunción Cuestablanca school, both in Madrid. It is also related to the rest of the author’s transversal churches, especially the church project for the Dominican mission on the island of Formosa (now Taiwan, 1966), with which it shares almost all its formal characteristics. Among the reasons for this oblivion are its location in a hidden place on the Galician coast, its confusing dedication and canonical situation, and above all the absence of the original project from the architect’s archive, due to his change of studio in 1971. Taking as a basis the unpublished account of Don Manuel García Calviño, parish priest and promoter of the church, and contrasting it with those that the architect himself offered in different forums during the last years of his life, the development of the facts relating to its genesis and construction is precisely re-established, so that it can serve as a basis for a further critical reading of this church.

• Publisher: Universidad Católica de Colombia
• Subject: churches / contemporary architecture / history of architecture / religious buildings / sacred architecture