Visiting Barcelona’s ‘Basilica of Sagrada Familia’:a neo-Gothic Architectural excellence & masterpiece by Spanish Architect Antoni Gaudi

On the second day (4/9/22) of our 3-day Barcelona trip ,we visited the world-renowned Architectural masterpiece Sagrada Familia Roman Catholic Church(The Basilica and the Temple of Holi Family) built by Architect, Antoni Gaudi who strived really hard to make it into his magnus opus !We were thoroughly amazed by the mesmerizing splendour of the great architecture.Here I am giving a detailed description of the monument & the Architects for my lovely supportive readers!Happy reading !

The Basílica i Temple Sagrada Família (The Basilica and the Temple of Holi Family), is a large unfinished church building in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and is currently the largest unfinished Roman Catholic church. Designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, his work on Sagrada Família is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On 7 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church and proclaimed it a minor basilica. On 19 March 1882, construction of the Sagrada Família began under architect Francisco de Paula del Villar. In 1883, when Villar resigned, Gaudí took over as chief architect, transforming the project with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted the remainder of his life to the project, and he is buried in the crypt. At the time of his death in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete. Relying solely on private donations, the Sagrada Família’s construction was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, progressed slowly and is still being constructed intermittently as per received donations.

Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano (1828 – 1901) was a Spanish architect.

Biography of Villar :
Villar studied architecture in Madrid at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and qualified in 1852. The following year he settled in Barcelona and was elected a member of what is now known as the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi. In 1854 he designed a series of emergency hospitals for victims of the cholera epidemic. Amongst other public appointments he became president of the Association of Architects and director of the Higher School of Architecture.

He held the post of diocesan architect from 1874 to 1892, and was succeeded in it by his son Francesc de Paula del Villar i Carmona. He restored the church of Santa Maria del Pi, the Basílica de Santa Maria de Vilafranca and the Casa de Misericòrdia; he also designed many parish churches and the apse of the basilica of the Monastery of Montserrat, a commission on which Antoni Gaudí worked under him in a junior capacity.
In 1877 he was commissioned by the Associació de Devots de Sant Josep to build the church of the Sagrada Família. Villar planned a Neo-Gothic design, of which only the crypt was built. He abandoned the project in 1883 as a result of disagreements with Joan Martorell, the architect advising Josep Maria Bocabella, president of the Associació de Devots de Sant Josep and promoter of the project. The job was offered to Martorell, who turned it down, and instead recommended Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi then took charge of the project and made it into his magnum opus.

Although today the Basilica of the Sagrada Família is intrinsically linked to Antoni Gaudí, he wasn’t named head architect until 1883, one year after the cornerstone was laid and after architect Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano had stepped down. These circumstances, which occurred 134 years ago, have decisively conditioned the Basilica as it is today.

Developer of the temple :

The construction of the Basilica of the Sagrada Família was begun at the initiative of Barcelona-born book merchant and extremely devout Catholic Josep Maria Bocabella i Verdaguer, who founded the Associació Espiritual de Devots de Sant Josep  (Spiritual Association of the Devotees of Saint Joseph) in 1866 in order to foster the values of the Christian family. Four years later, he went to Rome to give Pope Pius IX a silver image of the Holy Family and, on his way back, he discovered the Sanctuary of the Holy House in Loreto. This building enshrines the home where, tradition says, the Holy Family lived and was supposedly moved from Nazareth to this Italian town in the 13^th century. Bocabella was extremely impressed by the symbolic and artistic beauty of this Sanctuary, which inspired him to build a replica in Barcelona. And this was the seed of the Basilica of the Sagrada Família.

The original project : Del Villars Neo-Gothic temple :

Bocabella entrusted the project to the diocesan architect Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano, who offered to waive his fees. It was an extremely dynamic era in Barcelona, socially, economically and culturally. And it was also a difficult moment in history for Christianity in Europe. This is the context in which Bocabella, intending to rekindle the people’s spirituality, decided that the temple he wanted to build on a piece of land in the Eixample district, which would be paid for with the donations of devotees of the Associació de Devots a Sant Josep, had to be an awe-inspiring building that would convey a feeling of peace to all residents.

Although he dreamt of building an exact replica of the sanctuary in Loreto, del Villar convinced him to discard this idea and build a neo-Gothic temple, as was the trend at the time, while respecting Bocabella’s intention of creating a monumental building.

Del Villar’s project was inspired by the great medieval cathedrals and planned for a church with three naves in a Latin-cross floor plan, a sizeable crypt, an apse with seven chapels and a pointed bell tower located over the portico and rising 85 metres above street level. This verticality, along with the outer buttresses and large cloisonné windows, gave the building a clearly Gothic look.

The cornerstone was laid on 19 March 1882, the feast of Saint Joseph, and construction began, as was the custom, on the foundations for the crypt.

Del villar steps down ……

One year later, in 1883, the first discrepancies arose between del Villar, on the one hand, & Bocabella & his top advisor, architect Joan Martorell, on the other. Del Villar wanted to use solid stone pillars in the crypt, making each section between horizontal joints a single piece, while the developer & Martorell believed this was way too expensive. Their differences of opinion would drive del Villar to step down for the first time in his career as an architect.

…..and Gaudi comes on the scene : After del Villar stepped down, Bocabella offered his position to Martorell. He declined out of professional courtesy and because of his advanced age, but proposed his most outstanding disciple: Antoni Gaudí. He was just 31 years old and had also worked for del Villar.

Gaudí was named architect of the Temple on 3 November 1883 and found a fully drafted project and work already under way: the foundation of the crypt had already been laid and the columns were half built. Despite being a young architect with only five years of experience, Gaudí tackled this new challenge confidently and enthusiastically, which would end up marking the rest of his career. Right from the beginning, he regretted the orientation of the Temple, as it could not be built diagonally on the land with canonical orientation, facing Jerusalem: the head of the cross (the apse) facing the rising sun and the main entrance (the foot of the cross) towards the setting sun. As the works on the crypt had already begun, however, there was no other option than to respect the orientation del Villar had already established.

About the chief Architect : Antony Gaudi :

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalan architect from Spain known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism.Gaudí’s works have a highly individualized, sui generis style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família.
Gaudí’s work was influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature, and religion. He considered every detail of his creations and integrated into his architecture such crafts as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging and carpentry. He also introduced new techniques in the treatment of materials, such as trencadís which used waste ceramic pieces.
Under the influence of neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, Gaudí became part of the Modernista movement which was reaching its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work transcended mainstream Modernisme, culminating in an organic style inspired by natural forms. Gaudí rarely drew detailed plans of his works, instead preferring to create them as three-dimensional scale models and moulding the details as he conceived them.

Architectural excellence of Gaudi’s monuments is world-renowned. Gaudí’s work enjoys global popularity and continuing admiration and study by architects. His masterpiece, the still-incomplete Sagrada Família, is the most-visited monument in Spain.Between 1984 and 2005, seven of his works were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Gaudí’s Roman Catholic faith intensified during his life & religious images appear in many of his works. This earned him the nickname “God’s Architect” & led to calls for his beatification at Paral·lel station.

Alongwith Sagrada Familia, some more famous monuments by Antonio Gaudi :

My dear readers may kindly point out any incorrect information in my above writeup needing any corrections! I am truly indebted to Wikipedia & for the invaluable information on the subject !Happy Reading !