SAGRADA FAMILIA, Early Beginnings

From your very first glance, the Sagrada Familia makes you think of the gigantic cathedrals in European capitals for its overall appearance, style, size, construction time, daring structures, and symbolic meaning. And if you think about it, its own state of incompletion is one of the reasons behind its appeal.

But now I will continue to tell the story of this stone giant, and inevitably must talk about its creator. For decades, the work site of the Sagrada Familia in fact only existed in the mind of its creator.

After three years of work, Gaudí issued a reckless statement: all he needed to finish its construction was ten years, provided that he could have 360,000 pesetas per year. As you can imagine, this was an unattainable goal, as the construction was and still is funded only by offerings from the faithful, although today it is also financed by the proceeds of entrance tickets. Gaudí himself would go from house to house, urging the generosity of his richest clients.

In 1891 the construction of the east façade began in an extravagant and whimsical Gothic style mixed with the new liberty style that was just becoming popular. The architect wavered quite often: for example, he transformed the bell towers that were originally square into round towers. At the end of the century the four towers reached 32 meters in height, which was already rather impressive for the time. But the plan held that the twelve towers dedicated to the Apostles, four for each of the three façades, would reach a hundred meters each, and the middle one symbolizing Christ should eventually reach 170 meters. The works continued until 1906, then the flow of money dried up. Hoping to stimulate donors, Gaudí made a plaster model of the entire complex, but the yard had already used up more than three million pesetas and for years the works advanced extremely slowly, until they stopped altogether in 1914.

FUN FACT: Gaudí didn't leave a single written word about the work of the Sagrada Familia, or even his general ideas. He rarely drew technical projects or indicated precise measurements, and was always wrong when it came to budgets and timing. If you by chance see any reproductions of his designs you'll notice that they're full of towers with crazy shapes that disappear into fog, slanting pillars, carved ornaments, and ceramic mosaics. They are not an architect's projects, they are the dreams of a visionary artist.