A weekend in Barcelona
THE LEGENDARY SAGRADA FAMILIA Google ‘Barcelona’ and you are sure to stumble upon a wide selection of pictures of the Sagrada Familia. The masterpiece by Gaudí is by far the city’s biggest, most impressive and most iconic monument. It still isn’t completed, but that doesn’t stop it from welcoming 3,000,000 visitors a year. And rightfully so! While legendary buildings like these often disappoint once you visit them, the Sagrada Familia keeps amazing.
A SMALL HISTORY The construction of the Sagrada Familia kicks off in 1882 under the control of neogothic architect Francisco de Paula del Villars. When, after a year, he gets into a fight with the beneficiary of the S A G R A D A FA M I L I A project, he is fired and replaced by a young, promising architect called Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí transforms the classic design into a never-before-seen modernist temple. Initially, he estimates that the church will be finished in a decade. Soon, he realises that the construction will take way longer than that and that he won’t live to see the result. Therefore, he makes the completion of the first façade, the Nativity Façade, his main priority. He thinks that the odds of the church being completed are higher if there is already a fully-finished façade to look at. Together with the crypt, this wall is the only part that gets completed before Gaudí’s untimely death in 1926. In 1936, during the Spanish civil war, the majority of Gaudí’s plans get lost in a fire as the church gets bombed multiple times. Some say it might be better to stop the construction of it once and for all. Yet, after multiple protests by the people of Barcelona and plenty of fundraisers, the works continue. When the ceiling gets finished in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI comes to Barcelona to consecrate the basilica to be.
AND NOW?
The Passion Façade, Sagrada Familia.
48 | Diumenge/Domingo/Sunday
The end of the construction works is finally in sight. Yet, there still is plenty to do. With the Nativity Façade and the Passion Façade being finished, the only side left to complete is the church’s main entrance: the Glory Façade. Furthermore, the six highest towers are yet to be built: four 123-metrehigh towers, which will symbolise the evangelists; one 138-metre-high, symbolising the Virgin Mary; and the 172.5-metre-high tower of Jesus Christ. And the clock is ticking. The works are planned to be completed by 2026, on the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death, 144 years after the first stone was placed.