Lone Hero Facts

Dashrath Manjhi carved a road through a rocky hill in Bihar, India, using only a hammer and chisel - alone - for 22 years. When he finished in 1982, the journey from his village to the nearest town dropped from 55 km to 15 km. He started because his wife, Falguni, died in 1959 after a fall on the ridge path left her unable to reach a doctor in time. The road is still used today.

Justo Gallego Martinez spent 60 years building a full-scale cathedral by himself in Mejorada del Campo, Spain. He had no architectural training, no blueprints, and no building permits. He used recycled junk - stacked oil drums for pillars, bicycle wheels as molds, broken glass for windows - on land he inherited. He died in November 2021, aged 96, with the cathedral still unfinished.