La Sagrada Famila - past and future
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 fa