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La Sagrada Familia Cathedral
(cathedral, begun 1882)
Towering over the city of Barcelona and still unfinished after over 130 years, La Sagrada Familia (“The Holy Family”) Cathedral is the jaw-dropping brainchild of one of the most eccentric architects of modern times, Antoni Gaudi. Though he was one of the most influential modern architects, Gaudi was also a diligent student of earlier styles—so much so that one of his fellow architects said that if Chartres Cathedral were to be completely destroyed, Gaudi could, from memory, rebuild it exactly as it had been.
The cathedral he designed himself, however, was very different from the Gothic cathedrals he knew so well. He avoided the usual straight lines and right angles of the Gothic style and created a cathedral that feels organic, more like something that grew up out of the earth rather than being constructed upon it. The building is like an eruption in stone, melting and dissolving into a fluidity of form that is not meant to achieve some abstract ideal of beauty but to reflect the lines and shapes found in nature. “The straight line is the line of Man, the curve is the line of God,” he once said.1 Gaudi found a way to reach the dizzying heights of the Gothic without the use of flying buttresses, which he felt were artificial. Instead, he designed arches that would carry the weight and still allow the multiple spires to soar.
Whereas much of the statuary on a traditional cathedral seems to be an accessory to the building, here the abundant carvings swarm over the whole structure in such a way that they seem to be the building. These designs are peopled with the usual saints and biblical stories but also with arcane symbolism and with the bounty of the natural world: seashells, birds, flowers, fruit, and foliage. Gaudi was attempting to condense the entirety of the Catholic doctrine he embraced in this one single project, and in doing so the building overflows with an overwhelming profusion of images.
La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Barcelona [© Rodrigo Garrido/Shutterstock.com]
The interior echoes the sense that the building is an organic being, its tree-like columns rising from the ground and branching into the heavens, as though one were standing in a magical spiritual forest or on the inside of a living organism. Gaudi was concerned about every detail, striving so vigorously for realism that he made plaster casts of temporarily anesthetized turkeys and chickens to use as models for the fowl in the statuary on the façade and sides of the cathedral. He even made casts of stillborn babies to be used as models for his portrayal of the massacre of the innocents, and had a donkey hoisted up the façade to see how it would look in a nativity scene he was fashioning.
Gaudi’s creation is not universally beloved. Some critics find its disparate elements, its strange combination of Gothic and Art Deco design, to be a monstrosity—kitschy and tasteless. One could argue, though, that Gaudi included the ugly elements in order to make it a complete reflection of every element of life and faith—both the lovely and the unpleasing—that he could squeeze into his conception. Gaudi’s work might be gaudy, but his cathedral is inarguably complex and spectacular—a spectacle of the strength of faith in the face of an unbelieving modern world, which during his lifetime was beginning to chip away at the authority of the church.
The great cathedral was first conceived by Josep Maria Bocabella, a devout bookseller who argued that Barcelona needed a magnificent building to stand as an affirmation of the church in the face of the threat arising from an increasingly secularized society. The cathedral would be dedicated to the Holy Family and would represent the strength of faith, family, and tradition. The earliest photos of the building site, located on the outskirts of Barcelona, show a flock of sheep grazing in the spot where the cathedral was being built. In time, the city came to surround it.
When Bocabella found the early efforts of his first architect unsuitable, he had a dream that he would meet an architect with piercing blue eyes who would be the man to finish the job. He found those piercing blue eyes in Antoni Gaudi, a young architect just beginning to establish his reputation. When Gaudi took over the task, he completely rethought the design and incorporated his startlingly unique vision into the conception of the traditional Gothic cathedral.
Begun in 1882, the building still remains unfinished, a project that seemed to grow bigger in conception the further along it went in the process. Gaudi would not be rushed. As he said, “My client [meaning God] is not in a hurry.” After his death the building was only about one-fourth complete, but over the years work has continued as funds have been raised. In recent years the cathedral is finally far enough along to be useable for services, and the end of construction might finally be in sight. Throughout the process subsequent architects have tried to stay close to the original designs that Gaudi worked out in great detail. It is an open question whether Gaudi would have adjusted the design as he went along, had he lived longer. He was famous for modifying details in response to the discovery of unusual stones that appealed to him, which he would incorporate into the plan of his buildings. As he said, “In the Sagrada Familia, everything is providential.”2 Gaudi knew that the cathedral would not be finished in his lifetime, and was content with the fact that later architects would interpret his ideas in their own way, but in order that the general geometrical and structural rules he established would be followed, he left behind numerous models and drawings.
Interior of La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Barcelona [© Leandro Neumann Ciuffo/Wikimedia Commons, CC-by-2.0]
Antoni Gaudi was born in Catalonia, in southern Spain, in June 1852, and studied architecture in Barcelona, the city where he would create his greatest architectural triumphs. By the time he was in his thirties, Gaudi was the most sought-after architect in Spain, hired by wealthy patrons to design some of the most eccentric and remarkable residences ever constructed. Many of them are now Barcelona landmarks: the Park Güell (with its long, colorful, serpentine bench), the Casa Batllό, and the Casa Milá. Gaudi’s designs were largely organic, created to reflect the forms of nature, and therefore are unlike almost anything else in the history of architecture.
Inside the buildings, his columns are tree-like and seem to defy gravity, his surfaces flow like rivers of lava, and his walls swell and bulge. The exteriors of the buildings are adorned with vine-like twisted grilles or inlaid with colorful broken tiles. The beauty he sought to achieve was a beauty based on God’s own creation. “Those who seek out the laws of nature as support for their new work collaborate with the Creator,” he said. “Originality consists in returning to the origin.”3 He saw nature as sacred and sacramental, a book of symbols that revealed the presence of God through their transcendent beauty, and he wished his cathedral to do the same.
After his offer of marriage was spurned by a woman with whom he had become infatuated, Gaudi was crushed. Shortly thereafter he began to remake his life around an intense devotion to God. He began to attend mass and make confession on a daily basis, a practice he continued for the rest of his life. He fasted for forty days during Lent as an act of repentance and preparation for the work of building the cathedral. He had once been something of a dandy, arriving at worksites with his blueprints clutched in his gloved hands, but now he determined to live simply, shedding his wealth and subsisting on breakfasts of burnt toast and lunches of lettuce leaves dipped in milk. His well-worn suits became tinged with mold, his hair was usually disheveled, and his pants were held together with safety pins.
By 1914 Gaudi’s life was solely dedicated to the construction of La Sagrada Familia, and would remain so until the end. He saw the building of the cathedral as a spiritual vocation; he lived like a monk at the building site and worked with a small group of stone cutters to get everything exactly as he envisioned it. While he lived, he supervised every aspect of the project, even doing some of the carvings himself. As he was a perfectionist, the process was very slow, especially since the cathedral was built exclusively by donations rather than through a central rich benefactor. Most of Gaudi’s own earnings were sunk back into the project.
In June 1926, just before he stepped out the door to walk home, he said to one of his workers, “Come early tomorrow, Vincente, so we can make beautiful things.” As he made his way home he was struck by a tramcar while crossing the street. Due to the appearance of his worn-out clothes, he was mistaken for a tramp and taken to a nearby hospital for paupers. There, the attendants found a copy of the Gospels in his pocket and discovered that his underwear was held together by safety pins. He died clutching a crucifix and muttering a prayer to Jesus, and was buried a few days later in the crypt of La Sagrada Familia.
The cathedral Antoni Gaudi left behind at his death is a reflection of the intensity of his faith, fulfilling his vision of a place where all—rich or poor—could come to experience the transcendent truths of the Christian faith. When the 1992 Olympics were held in Barcelona, where so much of his finest work can be found, a renewed interest in Gaudi and in his awe-inspiring “sermon in stone” was ignited. As the cathedral nears completion it continues to be both a place of pilgrimage for the faithful and a fascinating spectacle for unbelievers. “Seeing,” Gaudi said, “is the sense of Glory, because Glory is the vision of God.”4 This cathedral, built to the glory of God, is Gaudi’s testament to the power of that vision.