History of the temple The Sagrada Familia

   History of the temple   The Sagrada Familia is an exceptional place of worship, as much for its beginnings and foundation as for its ambition.   

 

Five generations have already witnessed the temple’s  rise in Barcelona. Construction continues today and could be finished in  the first third of the 21st century.

BEGINNINGS: 1866-1883

The beginnings of the Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family, known as  the Sagrada Familia, go back to 1866 when Josep Maria Bocabella i  Verdaguer founded the Spiritual Association of Devotees of Saint Joseph,  which in 1874 began campaigning for the construction of an expiatory  temple dedicated to the Holy Family. In 1881, enabled by various  donations, the Association purchased a 12,800m² plot of land, located  between the streets of Marina, Provença, Sardenya, and Mallorca, to  build the temple on. The first stone was laid on St Joseph’s day, 19 March, 1882, in a  ceremony presided over by the Bishop of Barcelona, Josep Urquinaona. It  signalled the start of construction, first in the crypt located under  the apse, following the Neo-gothic design drawn up by the architect  Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano, the Sagrada Familia’s first  architect. After a short while, due to disagreements with the promotors,  he resigned from the post of chief architect and the job fell to Antoni  Gaudí.    

 

GAUDÍ: 1883-1926

After taking over the project in 1883, Gaudí  continued work on the crypt, which was finished in 1889. Later he began  work on the apse, while donations were received at a steady rate. After  receiving a substantial anonymous donation, Gaudí proposed a new and  grander design. He proposed abandoning the old Neo-gothic plan in favour  of a design that was more monumental and innovative, both in regard to  the form and structure as well as the construction. Gaudí’s design  consisted of a large church with a floor plan based on a Latin cross and  soaring towers. It was to be immensely symbolic, both architecturally  and sculpturally, and convey the teachings of the Gospels and the Christian Church. In 1892 the foundations for the Nativity facade  were started. This facade was built first because, as Gaudí himself put  it, “If, instead of building this decorated, richly ornamented facade,  we had started with the hard, bare and skeletal Passion facade, people  would have rejected it.” In 1894 the apse facade was finished, and the  Rosary portal, one of the entrances to the cloister on the Nativity  side, was finished in 1899. In 1909 Gaudí built the Sagrada Familia provisional school buildings,  for children of Sagrada Familia workers and local children, on the  south-west corner of the site. In the following year, 1910, a model of  the Nativity facade was displayed at the Grand Palais in Paris in an  exhibition featuring Gaudí’s work organised by his friend and patron  Eusebi Güell. The Pasion facade was designed in 1911. In 1914 Gaudí decided to concentrate exclusively  on the construction of the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia, a  fact which explains why he did not undertake any other major work in the  later years of his life. He became so involved that he lived his final  months close by his studio workshop; a space located next to the apse  used for producing scale models, drawings and designs, sculptures and  for taking photographs, amongst other activities. In 1923 he produced the final design for the naves and roofs. Construction work however progressed slowly. The first bell tower on the Nativity facade, 100 metres high and dedicated to Saint Barnabus, was finished on 30 November 1925. This was the only tower Gaudí saw completed. On 10 June 1926  he died as a result of injuries sustained three days earlier when he  was tragically knocked down by a tram. On 12 June he was buried in the  Chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the crypt of the Sagrada Familia,  where his mortal remains rest to this day. Over all these years a sizable group of architects, draughtsmen,  sculptors and modellers collaborated with Gaudí on the construction.   

HANDOVER: 1926-1938

After the death of Gaudí, his close collaborator Domènec Sugrañes took over the management of the works until 1938. In 1930 the bell towers on the Nativity facade were finished, and in 1933 the Faith portal and central cypress tree were also completed. In July 1936, after the military uprising and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War,  revolutionaries set fire to the crypt, burnt down the provisional  school of the Sagrada Familia and destroyed the studio workshop.  Original plans, drawings and photographs were lost and many large-scale  plaster models were broken. It should be pointed out that, from when  Gaudí took the helm in 1883 and despite these acts of vandalism, work on  the Sagrada Familia, although disrupted, never came to a complete stop,  and has always gone ahead according to the architect’s original concept.  

HERITAGE: 1938-1999

After the Spanish Civil War building resumed on the Sagrada Familia  and it continued to slowly rise. Between 1939 and 1940 the architect Francesc de Paula Quintana i Vidal,  who had started working with Gaudí in 1919, restored the fire-damaged  crypt and repaired many of the broken models, which were then used to  continue construction according to Gaudí’s original plan. The next directors were also men who had known and collaborated with Gaudí, Isidre Puig-Boada and Lluís Bonet i Garí, who were in charge of works until 1983. They were succeeded by Francesc de Paula Cardoner i Blanch, Jordi Bonet i Armengol, and lastly Jordi Faulí i Oller, who has currently been in charge since 2012. In 1952 the 35th International Eucharistic Congress was  held in Barcelona and several events took place in the Sagrada Familia  to mark the occasion. In the same year the steps to the Nativity facade  were built and the facade was floodlit for the first time. This lighting became a permanent feature in 1964 thanks to the Barcelona City Council. Work continued at a steady pace and in 1954 the foundations to support the Passion facade  were started, based on several studies Gaudí had carried out between  1892 and 1917. After the foundations were laid the Passion facade crypt  was built on them, and in 1961 a museum was opened in the crypt to  provide visitors with information about the history and technical,  artistic and symbolic aspects of the temple. The four bell towers on the Passion facade were completed in 1976. 1955 was a significant year for the Sagrada Familia; it was the year of the first fund-raising drive  to raise money to pay for the building works. The initiative was so  successful that it has been repeated every year since, and is a way of  allowing society as a whole to participate in the construction of the  temple. Numerous sculptors have left their mark of the Nativity facade. On Saint Joseph’s day, 19 March, 1958 the group of statues by Jaume Busquets representing the Holy Family was put in place. In 1986 the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs was  charged with producing the statues and sculpture for the Passion  façade, which were executed in accordance with his very personal style  for over 25 years.   

21st CENTURY 2000 – 2015

In 2000 the vaulting in the central nave and the transepts was built, and the foundations of the Glory facade were started. In the same year, to mark the new millennium, a Mass was held inside the temple which showcased the grandeur of the building. In 2001 the central window of the Passion facade was finished and stained glass by Joan Vila-Grau representing the Resurrection was installed. The four columns of the crossing were also finished. Gaudí and his work were celebrated in 2002, with the Barcelona City Council sponsoring International Gaudí Year to mark the 150th  anniversary of his birth. The Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia  participated with various initiatives, including the restoration,  relocating and opening of the Sagrada Familia schools building. In 2002 the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs completed the wall of the Patriarchs and Prophets which Gaudí had envisaged for the top of the porch on the Passion facade, and in 2005 the sculpture representing the Ascension  was positioned between the towers of this same facade. In the same  period the windows in the central nave were installed and the  Eucharistic symbols for bread and wine were completed by the Japanese  sculptor Etsuro Sotoo. In 2006 the choir inside the Glory facade was constructed, based on models by Gaudí. The vaulting in the ambulatory around the apse was finished in 2008. The vaulting in the crossing and the apse was finished between 2008 and 2010. 2010 was a milestone in the history of the Sagrada Familia: the temple was consecrated as a place of worship by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.   
PRESENTAs of today, 70% of the work on the temple has been executed, and the goal is to complete all of the architectural work by 2026. The following projects were completed in 2016: Western sacristy: It was blessed in 2015 and is  nearly finished now. Visitors enter the sacristy from inside the  Basilica, via the Liturgical Path. Since mid-2016, visitors have been  able to enter the cloister and get a close-up look inside.  Upper narthex on the Passion façade: The upper narthex,  or cyma, on the Passion façade is nearly finished. Work is currently  underway on the representation of the quarry and the garden where Jesus  Christ was buried.  Interior of the Basilica: The choirs have been  finished, with the benches covered in stone and the wrought-iron  railings with the musical notes of the hymns sung throughout the year.  The upper stained-glass windows in the apse have been visible since  December 2015 and those on the Nativity staircase, since July 2016.  The stained-glass windows on the staircases in the apse on the Passion  side are also now in place, as of December 2016. The apse staircase  completes the stained-glass windows inside the Basilica, except for  those on the Glory façade. The goal for 2020 is to finish all six central towers: Tower of the Virgin Mary: Rising up from the apse.  The centre of the star crowning this tower will be the same height as  the towers of the evangelists (135 metres), so the tip of the star will  be nearly 140 metres high.  Towers of the evangelists: These four towers currently stand at 76 of the 135 metres they will have by 2020.  Tower of Jesus Christ: This will be the tallest of them  all, 172.5 metres high. The next big milestone, after the temple was  consecrated in 2010, will be when this tower is finished with the cross  that will top it. The harmonious ensemble of the eighteen towers will  give the building great vertical strength. Work on the temple will finish with the construction of the main façade, the Glory façade.

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