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Sagrada Família is a large Roman Catholic basilica under construction
in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The formal title of the basilica is the
Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família or Expiatory Temple of the
Holy Family. It is the last, and perhaps most extraordinary, of the designs
of the Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudí. The Sagrada Família
was planned in the late 19th century and construction work, under the supervison
of Antoni Gaudí, commenced in the 1880s. After disagreements between
the founding association and the original architect Francesco del Villar,
Gaudí was assigned the project in 1883 and created an entirely new
design. At first, the basilica stood in an empty field over a mile away
from urban Barcelona. Gaudí worked on the project for over 40 years,
devoting the last 15 years of his life entirely to this endeavour; on the
subject of the extremely long construction, Gaudí is said to have
joked, "My client is not in a hurry." Work was interrupted by the Spanish
Civil War in 1935 and recommenced in the 1950s, after the end of World
War II. Gaudí died in 1926. Parts of the unfinished building and
Gaudí's models and workshop were destroyed during the Spanish Civil
War by anarchists. The design, as now being constructed, is based both
on reconstructed versions of the lost plans and on modern adaptations. |
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Sagrada
Familia