This is the masterpiece of the architect Antonio Gaudí and is as yet incomplete as, because it was intended to be an expiatory temple financed by contributions from public charity, lack of funding led to regular halts in construction. Construction commenced on 3rd November 1883.
The instigator was the chairman of the Barcelona section of the Spiritual Association of Followers of St. Joseph, Josep María Bocabella. His intention was to consecrate the temple to the Holy Family, to exalt Christian values, a Christian education and the family. The temple would atone for the sins of bourgeois selfishness and atheistic extremism. It started off as the "cathedral of the poor".
Francesc de Paula Villar designed a neo-Gothic building and directed the construction of the foundations and part of the crypt. His successor was Antonio Gaudí, who completely redesigned the building. Between 1914 and 1926 he did nothing else other than work on this temple, even sleeping in a room at the church.
The architect fully identified with the temple: he saw it as a building dedicated to the glory of God. His objective was to attain the perfect building, slowly evolving towards the culmination of a building that stands like an artificial mountain, majestic against the sky.
The initial plan
He was inspired by the medieval cathedrals with three doors, each one opening onto one of the naves of the transept. The floor plan has five naves, with a transept and a polygonal apse. Gaudí designed the Sagrada Familia with 3 monumental façades crowned with gables and dedicated to the Birth, Passion and Death of Jesus. Each one was to be dominated by 4 extremely high towers, one for each apostle and each one over 100 metres high. The central ciborium, which is over 170 metres high, represents an allegory of the Saviour.
Of the entire initial plan, Gaudí only completed the crypt and most of the Nativity façade. The genial Catalan architect had an obsessive interest in light and paid great attention to the incidence of the rays of sunlight on every corner of the temple.
He designed three triangular squares to form a kind of irregular star around the temple. Access to the three façades would be by wide staircases and a rectangular cloister would allow to walk over the building behind the façades.
Architectural music
In the year 1903, Gaudí commenced the construction of the four bell towers, which are circular in shape with a gentle parabolic profile and which are raised above the Nativity doorway. They are dedicated to the apostles.
He studied the musical possibilities of the church and decided on a project whereby the sound of these bells (which would be activated using an electronic keyboard) would coincide with the sound of a huge organ whose tubes would be installed in the western towers, which would allow the entire city to listen to the sacred sounds.
Nativity on the main façade
He placed this inside a cave whose immense triangular opening appears to disguise the underlying neo-Gothic ogives. In his view, God had been born in nature and not in culture.
The Passion façade
In the year 1911, after recovering from Malta fever, Gaudí completed within a few days the full plan for the Passion façade. He designed a kind of mountain protected by a pyramidal portico, with imposing slanting pillars. On top, there would be a double staircase, protected by another portico with eighteen supports that would be similar to those of the lower section.
He wished to evoke the gaunt starkness of the mineral world: the columns are geometrised and look like naked bones or tendons. The crepuscular lighting of the design heightens its pathos. Gaudí designed a tragic framework to hold the scenes of the Passion of Jesus. According to Gaudí's design, the first stone of the Passion façade was laid in 1954.
The Sagrada Familia today
Construction is ongoing, financed by donations and inheritances. The chief architect working on the temple, Jordi Bonet, hopes that the work could be completed in the year 2007, which would coincide with the 125th anniversary of the laying of the temple's first stone. Once the interior is finished, it may at last be used for worship.
In Barcelona, in a block delimited by the streets Mallorca, Provença and Marina.
Address:
Marina, 253 /Plaza Gaudí
Tel, no. 934550247
Display on GoogleMaps
Around the 3rd century B. C. various peoples with Celtic roots settled between the rivers Besós and Llobregat. Sheltered by the slopes of Montjuic, a settlement called Laie developed. A 15th century historian attributed the creation of modern Barcelona to the Carthaginian ruler Amílcar Barca, dating the foundation of the city in the year 218 B.C.. As a consequence of the Punic Wars, the Romans, under orders from Cornelio Escipión, occupied the coastal area of present-day Barcelona, creating a maritime colony called Faventia Julia Augusta Paterna Barcino in the year 133 B.C..
History
Barchinona under Visigothic rule
In the 5th century, Ataulphus made the city the capital of his extensive dominions. It was then that its economy started to expand, fuelled by its status as court headquarters. In the 6th century, the capital moved to Toledo, but the city of Barcelona had already been consolidated as the foremost commercial port in the northern half of the Mediterranean.
Barxiluna. Muslim rule
Barcelona remained under Muslim rule for less than a century. In the year 713, the city fell to Tariq, but it was conquered back by Louis the Pious, the Frankish King, in the year 801. The city attained great commercial, cultural and artistic splendour in this period.
Medieval Barcelona
In the high Middle Ages, the Muslims were expelled and they settled on the former sea route. It was then that the outlying area called Vila-Nova dels Sarraïns arose. By the 13th century, the city was full of Gothic architecture and several lordly mansions had been built in the wake of the major economic growth, a process that culminated in the 14th century, which was the city's real golden age.
Decline: 16th - 18th centuries
In the early years of the 16th century, there was a strong union of dynasties between Castile and Aragon. Moreover, the shadow of Turkey, a major maritime power in the Mediterranean and the monopoly of Seville hampered progress in Barcelona.
In 1640, Catalonia rebelled against Phillip IV and the Count-Duke of Olivares. Barcelona led a revolt that ended with the city being taken siege by the troops of John Joseph of Austria. Phillip IV issued a general amnesty and authorised the Catalonian "fueros" (regional autonomy).
At the start of the 18th century, Catalonia lost the foral institutions for having supported Archduke Carlos of Austria in the Spanish War of Succession.
18th and 19th centuries
The city was reborn in the 18th century with major naval, mercantile and industrial development. By the 19th century, the whole of Spain was immersed in the War of Independence, a conflict in which less blood was shed in the city than in other parts of Catalonia. The political instability present throughout Spanish territory was clearly present in the region. There were raids and popular revolts with a clearly anticlerical slant and the birth of the workers' movement was consolidated. Industrialisation and the "Renaixenca" were promoted by the Catalonian bourgeoisie and this economic boom was clearly apparent in the Universal Exposition of 1888.
The Eixample and modernism
In 1850, the engineer Ildefons Cerdá presented before the government of Madrid a Plan to restructure and extend the city. It consisted of designing a newly planned city according to a geometrical mesh, a grid of square blocks with chamfered vertices. The Eixample ('Ensanche' in Castilian Spanish, meaning 'extension') in Barcelona was derived from those plans.
Modernism was a style that was permeable to various influences and derived in the first instance from Art Nouveau. With a tendency towards the Baroque and the sumptuous, it exalted the taste and lifestyle of the flourishing bourgeoisie.
20th century
The early years of the century were marked by social unrest and the outbreak of the Tragic Week in 1909. The Civil War was to bring the city's development to a real halt. After the post-war period and from 1950 onwards, changes throughout the State helped city's development, largely due to the arrival of immigrants from all of the regions of Spain.
In 1977, Catalonia saw its autonomous government restored. Barcelona now belongs to a Catalonia that is ruled by a Statute of Autonomy, Estatut d´Autonomia. In 1992, Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games, which brought about in the city a change of extraordinary economic consequences.
Procession of the Magi
6 January
The Three Kings arrive by sea, anchoring their ship in front of the statue of Christopher Columbus and going as far as Montjuic.
Els tres tombs
17th January
This coincides with the festivity of San Antoni Abad. Legend has it that he was a virtuous man that arrived in Barcelona many centuries ago, bringing with him a cloud. When the procession is over, domestic pets are blessed.
Sa pobla a Gràcia
This is celebrated on Plaça del Diamant at the end of January. Bonfires are lit and coplas are sung in honour of the saint in the archaic Catalonian language of the islands.
St. Eulalia
Celebrated on 12 February. Numerous giants move to the music of the flute and the drum, dancing the ancient dance of sticks and 'correfoc'.
Carnival
In the month of February. The Carnival celebrations are of great popular interest, with fancy dress parades and the Burial of the Sardine being held.
Sant Jordi
23 April. This is the feast-day of the patron saint of Catalonia. Men give their loved ones a rose and women give a book. Open-air book fairs are held and very beautiful flower arrangements are exhibited.
Sant Joan
Celebrated on the night of 23 - 24 June, with several bonfires being lit.
Catalonian National Day (Diada de Cataluña)
Celebrated on 11 September. This is a civil celebration to commemorate the heroic defence of Barcelona against Phillip V's army. It is complemented by political demonstrations.
Virgen de la Merced (Our Lady of Mercy)
The feast-day of the city's patron saint is held on 24 September.
Christmas Festivities
Celebrated with a Nativity scene on Plaza de San Jaime and a market at the cathedral.
Municipal Tourist Offices
Plaza de Cataluña, 17 (underground).
Open every day, from 9 to 21 H.
Barcelona-Sants Central Station
Plaza Països Catalans, s/n.. Open daily from 8 to 20 H. In winter, on weekends and bank holidays, from 8 to 14 H.
Plaça de Sant Jaume
Daily from 9 to 20 H in summer. In winter, closed on Sunday afternoons.
Barcelona Tourist Office
Tel. no. 906301282
C/ Tarragona, 149-157
08015 Barcelona
Catalonian Regional Government (Generalitat) Tourist Information Centre
Palau Robert. Passeig de Gracia, 107. Tel. no. 932384000.
Mondays to Saturdays: From 10 to 19 H
Sundays: From 10 to 14:30 H.
Youth Tourist Office
Calabria,147
Tel. no. 9348384.
All about Barcelona
www.bcn.es
www.webarcelona.com
About the city of Barcelona.
Practical guide. Leisure and tourism activities.
www.barcelona-on-line.es
Tourism in the city of Barcelona.
Includes modernism and Gaudí
www.barcelonaturisme.com
About Barcelona and its sights
www.vivirenbarcelona.com
GAUDI AND HIS WORK
Location of Gaudí's works in Barcelona
www.bcnpostal.com
Information about the temple
http://sagfam.deakin.edu.au/
All about the temple
www.sagradafamilia.org
www.artehistoria.com
Gaudí's most important works,
his biography and the history of the Sagrada Familia
www.all4free.nl/gaudi/eng_gaudi.htm
About Gaudí's architecture
www.casamila.com
www.gaudiallgaudi.com
MODERNISM
About Modernist architecture
www.xtec.es/trobada/modernis/al_casas/familia.htm
www.artemodernista.com
ABOUT GAUDÍ AND THE EVENTS TO COMMEMORATE HIS CENTENARY. THE YEAR OF GAUDÍ
www.gaudi2002.bcn.es
www.reusgaudi2002.org
www.gaudiclub.com
