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La Sagrada Familia can be found in Barcelona, in Catalonia
in Spain and is renowned as Antoni Gaudi’s masterpiece.
Although thought of as a cathedral, it is in fact, a basilica – the
cathedral in Barcelona is the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia.
Gaudi was handed the project in 1884, but only after the founding
association and the original choice of architect Francesc del Villar
had irreconcilable disagreements with those behind the project.
Gaudi went back to the drawing board and came back with a completely
new design. He worked on the project for more than 40 years and
during the last 15 years of his life, he devoted his entire efforts
to it.
As the building began to take shape, and reach further and further
into the sky, the building began to take on a much talked about
fantastical shape and the now world famous four spike shaped towers
were crowned with geometrically shaped tops that were most likely
influenced by the Cubist movement. The complicated decorations
covering the basilica are rooted firmly with Art Nouveau styles.
Unfortunately, in 1926, before La Sagrada Familia could be completed,
Antoni Gaudi died. The iconic towers were originally intended to
be three times higher than they were. At this time, the Spanish
Civil War broke out and parts of the unfinished basilica and Gaudi’s
models and workshop were destroyed. No plans were left for the
completion of the building and since then, work has continued on
it with a variety of different architects, including Francesc Quintana
and Lluis Gari. Famous sculptors such as J. Busquets and the controversial
Josep Subirachs have work decorating the facades.
Work has continued on La Sagrada Familia with the original plans
being reconstructed from historical notes and adapting it to modern
times.
As Gaudi intended, every part of the basilica’s design
is rich with Christian symbolism. He wanted the church to be “the
last great sanctuary of Christendom”. In all, there will
be 18 of the striking towers, representing in ascending order of
height, the 12 Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary,
and tallest of all – Jesus Christ. The four Evangelists towers
will be topped with their traditional symbols, an angel, a bull
an eagle and a lion – representing St Luke, St Matthew, St
Mark and St John accordingly. The tallest tower will be surmounted
by a huge cross.
There will be three grand facades – the Nativity, the Passion
and the unfinished Glory façade. The Passion façade
includes strikingly emaciated figures of Christ being whipped and
crucified and the doors on this façade reproduce words from
the Bible in various languages, including Catalan, and the Glory
façade is to be decorated with words from the Apostle’s
Creed.
La Sagrada Familia was the most popular tourist attraction in
the whole of Spain in 2004 with 2.26 million people visiting the
unfinished building.
It is hoped that, with the advent of quicker
building technology than in the 1900’s when La Sagrada Familia
was started, it will be finished in 2026 – the centenary
of Gaudi’s death. |
