The Chapter of Oviedo Cathedral has denied permission to film inside the temple for the new Netflix adaptation of La Regenta. The dean, Benito Gallego, explained the decision to La Nueva España and justified it by the anticlerical nature, in his view, of Leopoldo Alas «Clarín»’s work, whose action largely takes place in the ancient Vetusta, a stand-in for the Asturian capital.
According to Gallego’s statements to La Nueva España, the production company Elástica Films requested the permit and submitted a 25-page script document to the Chapter. After reading it, the canons concluded they could not authorize the filming. “It is a good novel, but it is clearly not distinguished as a novel: it is an attack on the Church,” the dean stated, adding a comparison to explain his stance: “If, for example, they come to attack my mother, I cannot leave my balcony for them to do so.”
A cordial negotiation and a rejected financial compensation
Gallego noted that the conversations with the production company were cordial and that it even offered financial compensation, but the Chapter maintained its refusal. As a result, filming has been moved to the Basque Country, according to La Nueva España. The series will be directed by Mar Coll and will star Ester Expósito, who will play Ana Ozores.
The dean also recalled that the cathedral did allow the filming of the 1995 TVE miniseries directed by Fernando Méndez-Leite, starring Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Carmelo Gómez. Gallego, who was then part of the Chapter, recalled that experience in negative terms: “They were bad experiences back then.” In his opinion, today it would be even more complicated to reconcile a shoot with the influx of visitors the temple receives.