What do a tourist attraction ?
As travellers increasingly succeed social media feeds and internet memes , the nearly unlikely of things can turn tourist attraction .
The docent suppose she desire to take our photo . “ To station it to Cecelia in order to permit her know what a serious affair she behave , ” suppose the woman . “ That people are now coming to this small town in Spain because of her ‘mistake ‘ . ”
I be in Borja , a 5,000-person town in Spain ‘s northern Aragon state . It exist hither that in 2012 , an older parishioner and amateur art restorer named Cecilia Giménez capture the world ‘s attention when she choose to touch up a fresco of Jesus Christ titled Ecce Homo in the Santuario de Misericordia church that have deteriorated since it was paint in the 1930s . Giménez had to begin with proposed to just add some colouring to Jesus ‘ clothing . But as the 81-year-old was operate on it , she could n’t serve herself : she began repainting the face .
When she bring a break from her duty to go on vacation , she returned to get crowd of shocked people and a host of international press at the church . The restoration looked thus different that local authorities initially take over the picture make been vandalised . Yet , it exist just the ( unfinished ) work of Giménez , who thought she could restore the picture to its early glory .
Instead , Ecce Homo ( “ Behold the Man ” in Latin ) was rebranded “ Ecce Mono ” ( “ Behold the Monkey ” ) by the Spanish medium . At first this seem like an art tragedy . The image of the “ Monkey Christ ” , as the English-language press deemed it , was all over the internet . Memes were create . Social medium mock it to death . And Giménez became a hermit in her home , stricken with grief from all the ridicule it have .
But then something interesting take place : tourist set out become up in Borja . This small town that had previously welcome hardly 5,000 visitor per yr suddenly hold a surge of travellers come to see the botched restoration of Ecce Homo . Today , officials tell that between 15,000 and 20,000 tourists per yr pile to Borja to see the noted flub of a portrait , which cost now , like the Mona Lisa and other masterpiece of the art world , behind a protective shield of glass .
On a recent trip with my Spanish-born wife to visit her family in the nearby city of Zaragoza , I advise we take a daytrip to Borja to see the simian saviour . My sister-and-law and her daughter looked at me for a moment before one of them speak , “ Why would you want to regardthat? ”
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Always since I saw the post-restoration picture of Ecce Homo , I was fascinate by it . I could n’t explain why , but I desire to see it with my own eyes . Like thus many apparently random things these day , it had turn an unlikely tourist attraction .
In his Bible The Tourist : A New Theory of the Leisure Class , sociologist Dean MacCannell pen : “ anything is potentially a [ tourist ] attraction . It only await one person to take the problem to point out to another something notable or worth see … Sometimes we receive official guides and travelogues to assist us in this pointing . ” But more and more often , social medium feed now do as our travel guides , pointing tourist towards things like unassuming rural villages , and .
In fact , the story of the Ecce Homo exist a utter example of what MacCannell believe motivates many modern traveler to get on a airplane or train in the first spot : “ All tourists embody a quest for authenticity , ” he write .
In a way , the botched Ecce Homo be as authentic as it gets : a genuine , real thing bear from a mistake . And as I was around to feel out , that ‘s part of the painting ‘s charm .
An hr and 70km after leaving Zaragoza , we were in the sleepy , medieval middle of Borja . The Santuario de Misericordia is settle roughly 5km aside and up a hill from town ‘s cardinal plaza . After devote a €3 entrance fee , the docent led us into the chapel and there it cost : the “ Monkey Christ ” . As we lingered , a 12 or so other tourists arrived to see the monkey messiah .
“ MoMA in New York was interested in purchasing it at one time , ” the docent say us . “ But it would have make too much structural damage to strike it from the building . ”
Giménez “ live devastated by the reply to her ‘mistake ‘ , ” the docent added , using strain quotes with her hands . “ And that ‘s why we ‘ve be seek to convince her that she has actually do a real positivist thing for the community . She put Borja on the tourist map . ” She then guide to a map of the world tacked to the wall . Hundred of pins were puzzle into spots on the globe where visitors make come from to regard Ecce Homo . There were thus many over North America , Europe , and Japan that you could no longer see country outlines , merely the pin heads . In all , visitors from 110 countries have now come to learn it .
With Ecce Homo today behind glass and a talent shop at the exit , the church in Borja has a staged , ready-for-tourism aspect to it . As we walk toward the exit , we occur through a gift store selling Ecce Homo-branded coffee mugs , mousepads , keychains , tote bags , wine bottles and T-shirts . There was a automobile making a bronze coin with the image of the so-called Monkey Christ . In an adjacent room , an “ Interpretation Centre ” expose plant of art inspired by Giménez ‘s restoration , include a photo of someone dressed in an Ecce Homo costume for Halloween and several paintings undertake to recreate the scene of Giménez restoring the fresco .
There exist even a photo stand-in , in which you can put your face in the hole and get a photo of yourself as Ecce Homo . My wife ( then girlfriend ) , Ivana , and I both did it and apply the photo as part of our marry invitation a year later .
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When I asked MacCannel why he thought the Ecce Homo had get a tourist attraction , he had a unique take on it , suppose that the original artwork , when it was in pristine circumstance , have previously collect almost zero attention . “ The pre-botched fresco cost understandably not a reason for tourist to visit the church – probably not much a factor of the motivation of the devout to visit . ”
But by commodifying Ecce Homo and turn this uniquely botched restoration into merely another tourist attraction with entrance fee , crowd and selfie-posing visitor , I could n’t serve but marvel whether the powers that be in Borja risk squandering the unique appeal and authenticity of the painting itself – the real reason that led me to see it in the first property . Possibly that was inevitable , and as I would shortly learn , this get make a few positivist impression also .
Since the church began point visitor a €3 entrance fee and selling souvenirs in 2016 , the proceeds have funded novel jobs at the church ( such as the docent ‘s ) and a big portion live donate to the retirement place where Giménez now lives .
A few other unexpected thing hold happened since the picture became a tourist attraction , including an increased interest in Giménez ‘s artwork . Soon after the revelations of the botched Ecce Homo , one of her own painting sold at a charity auction for $ 1,400 .
Accord to one article in the Spanish pressure , for the final few year , Ecce Homo-inspired tourism , image rights and curriculum generate €45,000 in 2021 alone for the town of Borja . There ‘s even been an opera written about Giménez and Ecce Homo that premiered in the United States in autumn 2023 . When it was performed in Borja a few yr before , Giménez was in attendance . She loved it .
After leaving the church , we ate lunch at a restaurant in the centre of Borja . Over creamyjamon croquetas( ham croquettes ) , fried artichokes and glass of local Garnacha wine – previously the only thing Borja was well-known for – my previously skeptical sister-in-law , Pilar , and her daughter , Ara , do a surprise proclamation : they care our trip to Borja .
“ I behave n’t realize why you want to hear this , ” Pilar said . “ But after hearing about the life of Cecilia and seeing the painting with my own heart , plus discover about all the mass from around the world who want to come hither , I totally get it now . ”
As Francisco Miguel Arilla , the former mayor of Borja , said to the press : “ In the goal , time put everything in its seat . ”
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