The first modern astronaut to go into space was Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961, who orbited our planet and said the emblematic phrase: “The Earth is blue!”.
Before that, reaching space was only available in the science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
However, a curious figure of an astronaut carved on the façade of the north entrance of the Cathedral of Salamanca, Spain, ornaments the church, built in Gothic style between the years 1513 and 1733.
The mysterious figure wearing boots, helmet and all the breathing apparatus, with tubes attached to its back, appearing to float on a spacewalk, like modern astronauts.
But what would such a figure be doing in a 16th-century church?
Theories about Ancient Astronauts, time travel, and the supernatural power of future vision come to mind, but the answer to this question is unclear, as there is no documentation that actually proves when the astronaut was sculpted.
However, there are two versions that can point out that he is, in fact, a figure prior to his time.
The first possibility is that the sculpture was built during the first of the original works of the Cathedral of Salamanca, between 1513 and 1733.
A second hypothesis indicates that it may have been added to the building in 1755, during a restoration that was done due to the Lisbon earthquake, which hit and damaged the Cathedral, and some cracks are still visible to this day.
Skeptics, however, tend to believe that the astronaut was made in 1992, when the cathedral underwent a new renovation and at that time space exploration already existed, so the figure of the astronaut would have been sculpted by Miguel Romero and would simply have been left out of the records of the architect Jerome García de Quiñones, who was in charge of the renovation. But none of those involved in the renovation to date has confirmed that they were the author of the work.
However, those who defend alternative theories believe that the astronaut, in fact, was sculpted much earlier and that the restoration only repaired the damaged astronaut.
The mystery rests on the fact that the photos taken before the restoration of the façade have conveniently not been found, and there are no witnesses, creating a controversy among the testimonies.
