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Although the church building survived the CivilWar, Gaudí’s plans and models
were destroyed in 1936 by the anarchists, who regarded Gaudí and his church
as conservative religious relics that the new Barcelona could do without.
George Orwell – whose sympathies were very much with the anarchists during
the Civil War – remarked that the Sagrada Família had been spared because of
its supposed artistic value, but added that it was “one of the most hideous
buildings in the world” and that the anarchists “showed bad taste in not blowing
it up when they had the chance”.
Work restarted in the late 1950s amid great controversy, and has continued
ever since – as have the arguments. Some maintained that the Sagrada Família
should be left incomplete as a memorial to Gaudí, others that the architect
intended it to be the work of several generations, each continuing in its own
style. On balance it’s probably safe enough to assume that Gaudí saw the
struggle to finish the building as at least as important as the method and style.
Construction is financed by private funding and ticket sales, not by government
or church, and for many years the work has been overseen by chief architect
Jordi Bonet, the son of one of Gaudí’’s assistants. His vision has attracted no little
criticism for infringing Gaudí’s original spirit, not least the work on the Passion
facade, commissioned from sculptor Josep María Subirachs. Computer-aided
design and high-tech construction techniques have also proved controversial,
though they have undoubtedly speeded up the work in recent years.Meanwhile,
tunnelling under the temple for the high-speed AVE train line has kicked up a
huge stink among critics who claim that the church will be put at risk (not so,
say the tunnel engineers).All in all, though the project might be drawing inexo-
rably towards realization, no one is yet prepared to put forward a definite
completion date, leaving plenty more time for argument.
The building
The size alone is startling – Gaudí’s original plan was to build a church capable
of seating over 10,000 people. In particular
,
twelve extraordinary
spires
rise to
over 100m. They have been likened to everything from perforated cigars to
celestial billiard cues, but for Gaudí they were symbolic of the twelve apostles.
A precise symbolism also pervades the facades, each of which is divided into
three porches devoted to Faith, Hope and Charity, and each uniquely sculpted.
Gaudí made extensive use of human, plant and animal models (posing them in
his workshop), as well as taking casts and photographs, in order to produce
exactly the likenesses he sought for the sculptural groups.The eastern
Nativity
facade
(facing c/de la Marina) was the first to be completed and is alive with
fecund detail, its very columns resting on the backs of giant tortoises. Contrast
this with the Cubist austerity of Subirachs’ work on the western
Passion
facade
(c/de Sardenya), where the brutal story of the Crucifixion is played out
across the harsh mountain stone. Gaudí meant the so-far unfinished south
facade, the
Gloria
, to be the culmination of the Temple – designed (he said), to
show “the religious realities of present and future life . . . man’s origin, his end”.
Everything from the Creation to Heaven and Hell, in short, is to be included
in one magnificent ensemble.
The reality is that the place is a giant building site, with scaffolding, pallets,
dressed stone, cranes, tarpaulins and fencing scattered about, and contractors
hard at work. However, construction of the vaults over the side-aisles began in
1995 and for the first time a recognizable church interior is starting to take
shape. In 2001 the vaults of the central nave were finished, and the whole
church is due to be roofed in due course, with a 170-metre-high central dome
and tower to follow (which will make the church the tallest building in
THE EIXAMPLE
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Sagrada Família and Glòries