180 17001900
Sagrada Familia
1883 CHURCH BARCELONA, SPAIN
ANTONI GAUD
The Expiatory Church of the Holy Family, Barcelona,
usually known as the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family),
is the masterwork of Antoni Gaud, the great Catalan
architect. Gaud spent the last 40 years of his life on
the project, designing the church in a very personal blend
of Gothic and the Art Nouveau style that was fashionable
in the late 19th century. When he died, however, only a
small part of the enormous church had been completed.
Since then, building work has continued, largely based
on Gauds design, but with major interruptions at various
stages, notably during the Spanish Civil War, which lasted
from 1936 to 1939. Some parts of the church, however,
had to be planned from scratch, because Gaud did not
leave detailed plans of every feature. Although it has
still not been nished, the resulting building is a
staggering achievementa cluster of strange, elongated
spires topped with colored nials, an idiosyncratic
assortment of pointed gables and roofs above Gothic-style
windows, and a mass of sculpture. It is a church on a vast
scale, in a style unlike any other, with a totally original
handling of space, form, structure, and decoration.
Like many churches, the Sagrada Familia is based on a
cruciform plan with an apse (curved end) housing the
high altar, but Gaud modied the layout by incorporating
numerous treelike columns as well as vaults and walls that
curve and divide in an unusual manner. Churches have often
been likened to forests, but never has this comparison been
so apt as at the Sagrada Familia. Other imaginative details
from pinnacles that resemble seed pods and honeycomb
patterns on the walls to the organic twists and turns
of the carvingsare based on plant designs.
The churchs slender spires, emphasized by the pattern
of openings and carvings that extend from top to bottom,
create a striking prole as they rise majestically above the
center of Barcelona. Eighteen spires are planned in total
twelve representing the Apostles, four the Evangelists,
and one each for Jesus and Mary. The churchs sculpted
faades are also outstanding. They look Gothic at rst, but
the sloping columns, bizarre canopies, and carved gures
make them seem to distort and change before your eyes.
Decoratively, the building is typical of its creator. Gaud
loved bright colors, and although much of the church
is nished in natural stone, the tops of the spires are
covered with the mosaics made from ceramic tiles that
Gaud used so widely on his secular buildings. Inside the
church, color is provided not just by stained glass, but also
by colored light ttings that twinkle from the high vaults.
Some critics have found this decorative exuberance
lacking in taste, but many of the details have symbolic
signicance. Crowning the Nativity faade, for example, is
a large sculpted cypress, an evergreen tree that represents
everlasting life. Its leaves are green, and its branches are
festooned with white alabaster doves that represent the
souls of the faithful entering Heaven. This Tree of Life is
topped with symbols of the Holy Trinity. Gauds inspired
use of decoration and his architecture as a whole reect
an artist single-mindedly committed to a very personal
visiona vision that Gauds successors in the 20th and
21st centuries have done their best to realize.
ANTONI GAUD
18521926
The son of a coppersmith, Antoni Gaud i Cornet
was born at Reus, Tarragona, Spain, and began
an apprenticeship at a mill before studying
architecture in Barcelona. Although interested
initially in revival movements and the works of
art critics such as John Ruskin, Gaud grew up at
a time when artists in Catalonia were seeking a
way to express their nationalism, and he became
an exponent of Catalan modernism, in which ideas
from the past (including the Moorish and Gothic
styles) were fused with more recent inuences,
such as Art Nouveau, to forge a distinctive style.
Most of Gauds buildings are in Barcelona.
The Casa Mil and Casa Batll are city apartment blocks with curving walls,
and he designed lavish private houses, such as the Palacio Gell (for his
patron Don Basilio Gell), where he developed his signature formsparabolic
arches and eccentric roofscapes. In these buildings Gaud translated the
decorative curves of Art Nouveau into architecture. He also designed the Park
Gell, a remarkable landscape on a hill above Barcelona, its structures studded
with his trademark mosaics. After 1882 Gaud spent most of his time on the
Sagrada Familia, a building that gave him unique scope to be inventive, and
the one with which his name will always be most closely associated.
182 17001900

Visual tour: exterior

N

1
2
4

6
3

1 2
1 FINIALS Natural stone is often left exposed on church
exteriors. At the Sagrada Familia, however, the spires
terminate in a riot of applied color that picks out carved
symbols, such as the cross and the bishops ring, and words
of prayer and praise, such as excelsis. The spires twisted,
multifaceted forms catch the sun as it moves across the sky,
picking out splashes of red, gold, white, and green. The nials
are covered with mosaics made from broken tilesfavored
by Gaud because the color of the ceramics was tough and
permanent, fading less with the passing of time than paint.
1 PASSION FAADE The north entrance of the church is through a portal in the
Passion faade, a vast wall topped by four spires and adorned with sculptures
depicting the Passion of Christ, from the Last Supper to his Crucixion and
entombment. This part of the church was built in the late 20th century, but the
overall layout is based on Gauds design. An enormous sloping canopy protects
the entrance, its overhanging roof supported on a series of bizarrely angled
columns whose form resembles that of giant bones or branches. To support
the carvings, Gaud designed a series of stone platforms that seem to emerge
organically from the walls. In 1989 the Catalan sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs
began work on the gures that adorn the platforms.
 SAGRADA FAMILIA SPAIN 183

5
1 PASSION SCULPTURES Working more than 100 years after Gaud
began the building, Josep Maria Subirachs sculpts in a bold, dramatic
style. His gures, such as that of Nicodemus seen here anointing Christs
body, are almost cubist in form, often with angular heads and multifaceted
limbs. The sculptures are very different from those Gaud envisioned and
have provoked controversy, but many visitors nd them powerful.
2 NAVE When working
6 with traditional Gothic
forms, such as this rose
window, Gaud simplied
them to emphasize their
sculptural qualities. All
intricate medieval tracery
has been eliminated from
this nave window to leave
12 plain, glazed openings
3 and a central roundel.
This simplicity provides
1 NATIVITY FAADE Located on the south side of the church, this was the rst the backdrop for a more
faade to be completed. Although not painted in bright colors as the architect complex treatment of
originally intended, it is built according to Gauds wishes, with swirls of sculpture the stonework.
rising above a trio of portals. The carvings show the birth and early life of Jesus
and include groups of singing and trumpeting angels. A wealth of incidental detail
covers the surface of the complex faade, including crosses, rosaries, plants, birds,
animals, and even the carpentry tools of Josephs workshop.

ON CONSTRUCTION
Work is still continuing on the Tallest spire
represents
Sagrada Familia. In Gauds lifetime Jesus
many thought that the complex
church would take centuries to
build, but a completion date of
the late 2020s is now expected. Cloister
The drawing on the right shows
what the nal church will look
like. To complete the buildings
18 spires and the Glory faade,
where the entrance to the nave will
be, the architects and builders have
had to rely on diverse sources.
4 Some of Gauds original plans have
not survived, so architects have
1 LETTERING There are sacred writings and words on many of the walls of the had to work out the missing details,
Sagrada Familia, acknowledging the importance to Christians of the word of God using computers to help model
and the text of the Bible. Some of these inscriptions are in a owing, organic Art
Gauds unusual shapes and forms.
Nouveau style evolved by Gaud, while others are more recent. The inscriptions on
Fortunately, some of the models
the bronze portals of the Passion faadetwin doors that open like a bookare
made in Gauds time still exist,
among the latter. These are the work of the sculptor Subirachs, and contain texts
from the Gospels in capital letters wedged closely together. Most of the words and these have enabled builders
Passion faade
on the doors are nished quite roughly, their surfaces broken up by numerous to construct the roofs and other
horizontal striations. Important words or phrases, such as the name of Jesus incomplete parts of the church. Glory faade
(above), are beautifully polished to make them stand out from the others.
184 17001900

Visual tour: interior

N

11

10
12 9 7

8
13

3 NAVE COLUMNS Gauds columns are unique in the history of architecture

because they change shape as they ascendthey are uted at the base and
smooth-sided higher up, and the polygonal cross section becomes circular. The
columns branch out like trees toward the top to form clusters of slender branches
that support different parts of the vault. In the nave, where the columns are most
numerous, they form a spectacular forest of uprights and diagonals, with strange
multifaceted capitals and swellings or knots where the uprights divide. 9
1 CROSSING At the
7 heart of the building
is the crossing. Here,
the nave and sanctuary,
which form the main
northsouth axis of
the church, meet the
transepts, which extend
from east to west. The
nave, to the right, is longer
and wider than the other
arms, with two pairs of
side aisles, while the
sanctuary and transepts
have one aisle on each
side. All these spaces are
vaulted, and the upward-
sweeping lines of the
columns draw your eye
toward the patterns of
light in the stone vaults.
The church interior is
vast and held around
6,500 people during the
consecration ceremony
of the church in 2010.

8
1 STAINED-GLASS WINDOW The artist Joan Vila-Grau
has been working on the stained-glass windows for the
Sagrada Familia since 1999, following the general plan
outlined by Gaud. Using abstract patterns of saturated
color, Vila-Grau creates the vivid light that suffuses the
interior. The glass is made in the workshop of Josep
Maria Bonet, whose work for the church dates back to
the time when the crypt windows were glazed.

11
1 GALLERIES High galleries, sometimes
used to accommodate choirs, line the
churchs interior and are reached via
spiral staircases that run up the walls.
These narrow galleries have undulating
stonework, and the undersides are
carved in a scalloped form to harmonize
with the leaike vaults above them.
SAGRADA FAMILIA SPAIN 185
2 VAULT DETAIL The columns
10 divide at the top to support a series
of concave compartments in the
vaults, each of which has a circle in
the center containing a light tting.
Although inuenced in part by the
stone vaults of medieval cathedrals,
the design of these compartments,
is unusual. Unlike the linear ribs of
medieval vaulting, there are jagged
edges where each compartment
adjoins the others, creating the
effect of a series of starbursts.
The curves of the vaults reect the
light from above, illuminating
the interior of the church. These
vaults are also reminiscent of the
leafy crowns of treesa reference
to the natural world that was such a
great source of inspiration to Gaud.
12 13
1 APSE The east end (in the liturgical sense) of the church is the part of the 1 TOWERS The tapering towers of
building most similar to a medieval church. The space is curved in shape, like Gauds masterpiece are just as striking
the apse of a Gothic cathedral. The radiating series of high windows and the within as from outside. Long vertical
semicircle of seven small chapels are also Gothic features. There are two main protrusions in the stoneworksimilar
reasons for the strong Gothic inuence here. Firstly, Gaud had to follow the to pilasters in conventional buildings
lines of the crypt, which had been built in the Gothic revival style before he run all the way up the inner walls of the
joined the project. Secondly, the apse was the rst part of the church to be built towers, drawing your eye upward and
above ground, and Gaud had not yet developed his later idiosyncratic style. emphasizing their immense height.