L'art, Sauveur D'une Crise

HISTORY

The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is a work on a grand scale which was begun on :

1866 :when Josep Maria Bocabella founds the Association of Devotees of Saint Joseph, which would become the promoter of the Temple

1882 : from a project by the diocesan architect Francisco de Paula del Villar.

1974 : The idea of constructing a temple is first published in "The Promoter of the Devotion to Saint Joseph".

At the end of 1883 Gaudí was commissioned to carry on the works, a task which he did not abandon until his death in 1926. Since then different architects have continued the work after his original idea.

The building is in the centre of Barcelona, and over the years it has become one of the most universal signs of identity of the city and the country. It is visited by millions of people every year and many more study its architectural and religious content. 

It has always been an expiatory church, which means that since the outset, 133 years ago now, it has been built from donations. Gaudí himself said: "The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people." The building is still going on and could be finished some time in the first third of the 21st century.

Gaudí

After 1914, Gaudí devoted himself exclusively to building La Sagrada Família, which is why there are no other major works from the last years of his life.

He became so involved that he lived his last few months right next to his workshop, a room beside the apse used for making scale models, doing sketches and drawings, as a sculpture studio and a space for photographic work, amongst others. 

In 1911 he planned the Passion facade and in 1923 the definitive solution to the naves and roofs. The works advanced slowly, though, and Gaudí said: "There is no reason to regret that I cannot finish the church. I will grow old but others will come after me. What must always be conserved is the spirit of the work, but its life has to depend on the generations it is handed down to and with whom it lives and is incarnated". 

On 30 November 1925 the construction of the first bell tower of the Nativity façade, dedicated to St Barnaby and 100 m high, was finished.

This is the only one that Gaudí lived to see built, since on 10 June 1926 he died as a result of a tragic accident three days earlier, when he was run over by a tram. On 12 June he was buried in the Carmen Chapel in the crypt of La Sagrada Família, where his remains still lie today. 

The architect's body was not identified for several days after the impoverished 73 year-old was mistaken for a tramp. He lived long enough only to see a quarter of his masterwork completed.

All those years, a large number of architects, draughtsmen, sculptors and model makers had worked on the project with Gaudí.

CRISIS

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