Origins

The origins of the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia date back to 1866, the year in which Josep Maria Bocabella i Verdaguer founded the Spiritual Association of Devotees of San José, which from the year 1874 promotes the construction of an expiatory temple dedicated to the Holy Family . In 1881, and thanks to several donations, the Association purchased a plot of land of 12,800m² between the streets of Marina, Provença, Sardenya and Mallorca to build the temple.

The first stone was placed on March 19, 1882, the feast of San José, in a solemn ceremony presided over by the bishop of the city, Josep Urquinaona. From then on, construction begins, starting with the crypt located under the apse according to a Neo-Gothic design by the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano, the first architect of the temple. This one, shortly after and by discrepancies with the promoters, leaves the direction of the work, and the order happens at the hands of Antoni Gaudí.

Antoni Gaudí

Apse

Portal of Rosario

facade of the apse

the facade of the Passion

model

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Birth facade

Tomb of Gaudi

After the death of Gaudi

In 1930 the bell towers of the facade of the Nativity are finished and in 1933 the portal of the Faith and the central cypress is finished.

In July 1936, following the military uprising and the Spanish Civil War, revolutionaries set fire to the crypt, burned the Provisional Schools of the Holy Family and destroyed the workshop. At that time the plans, the drawings and the original photographs are lost, and a part of the scale scale models is reduced to shattered. However, it should be noted that since the intervention of Gaudí in 1883 and despite those acts of vandalism, the construction of the temple has not stopped and the will of the original idea of the architect has always been respected.

Portal of Faith

Central cypress

Then there are directors Isidre Puig-Boada and Lluís Bonet i Garí, also collaborators of Gaudí and people who knew the teacher and who until 1983 directed the work. Subsequently, they were directors Francesc de Paula Cardoner i Blanch, Jordi Bonet i Armengol and Jordi Faulí i Oller, who currently holds the position, since 2012.

In 1952 the XXXV International Eucharistic Congress was celebrated in Barcelona, ​​which is why several acts are held in the temple. That same year, the Nativity staircase was built and the façade was illuminated for the first time, lighting that in 1964 will be permanent at the will of the Barcelona City Council.

The works continue with vigor in 1954; the foundations are started to build the facade of the Passion, based on the multiple studies carried out by Gaudí between 1892 and 1917. After the foundations, the crypt is built, where in 1961 a museum was installed to explain to visitors the aspects historical, technical, artistic and symbolic of the temple. This facade will see the four terminals of its bell towers lifted in 1976.

Crypt

Many sculptors have left their mark on the facade of the Nativity. On March 19, 1958, the festivity of San José, the sculptural group that represents the Sagrada Familia is placed, made by Jaume Busquets.

Since 1986, the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs is responsible for carrying out the sculptural work on the facade of the Passion, which was executed according to his personal style over twenty years.

XXI CENTURY

In 2000, the vaults of the central nave and the transept were built, and at the same time the foundations of the facade of the Gloria were begun. That year, on the occasion of the turn of the millennium, a mass is celebrated inside the temple that allows us to understand the grandeur of the work.

In 2001 the central window of the facade of the Passion is completed and a stained glass window dedicated to the resurrection is placed, work of Joan Vila-Grau. The four columns of the center of the cruise are also completed.

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The figure and work of Gaudí are especially remembered in 2002, when the City Council of Barcelona promotes the International Gaudí Year on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth. The Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia participates with various activities, such as the restoration, transfer and opening of the Provisional Schools of the Sagrada Familia.

During 2002, the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs carried out the project of the wall of the patriarchs and prophets that Gaudí placed in the arcade of the facade of the Passion, and in 2005 the sculpture of the Ascension was placed between the towers of this façade. In parallel, the Eucharistic symbols of bread and wine, made by the Japanese sculptor Etsuro Sotoo, are placed in the windows of the central nave.

In 2006, the cantoria of the facade of the Gloria was built according to Gaudí's models. The vaults of the ambulatory of the apse are finished in 2008. Between 2008 and 2010 the vaults of the transept and the apse are finished.

2010 is a significant stage in the history of the Holy Family, with the dedication of the temple by S. S. Benedict XVI.

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The work continues

On March 19, 2017, it was 135 years since the laying of the first stone of the temple. In 2017 the construction of the evangelists' and Virgin Mary's towers, begun in December 2016, with pre-assembled stone panels prefabricated in Galera's workshop, has been followed with good rhythm. The towers follow the architectural model of the sacristy, defined by Gaudí in a plaster model.

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"The temple, as a whole, besides the utility of celebrating the divine worship, will plastically represent the truths of religion and the glorification of God and his saints." A. Gaudí

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Virtual view

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