The Santa Barbara church in the northern Spanish town of Llanera, once a place of worship for employees of an explosives factory, had been abandoned since the closure of the factory after the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War.

The artist Okuda San Miguel spent a week late last year painting the building with bright colors, featuring faces and a skull on the high ceiling.

While the skateboarding church garnered international attention and praise, the Madrid-based daily El Pais said it has also generated controversy. One commenter on the newspaper’s Facebook page called the project “utterly disrespectful”; another suggested the artist try doing the same to a mosque.

In an exchange of emails with RNS, San Miguel insisted that “few people think that way,” and he added that townspeople welcomed the transformation.

“During the public presentation of the finished paintings we met some old men that had worked in the church in the past, and they liked … the new life brought to the church,” he wrote.

The artist, who was born Oscar San Miguel, talked about his inspiration.

“I travel a lot and my art is closer to the Indian Gods … spiritualism which involves animals,” he said. “I think art is like a universal religion, without borders.”

Since completing the project, San Miguel has painted the outside of a church in Youssoufia, Morocco.