Barcelona City Guide: Sagrada Familia 🇪🇸 Travel & Discover

With an estimated completion date of 2041, the Church of the Sagrada Familia has been under construction since 1882. The basilica has three facades, each of which represents a particular event in the life of Christ. The Nativity Facade on the east, the Passion Facade on the west, and the Glory Facade on the south. The Nativity Facade is the one part of the church built by Gaudí himself. Like the other facades, it is composed of four bell towers square at the base, but which become cylindrical in form by the time they reach one-fourth of their height. Further up, they assume a parabolic profile to then be transformed into the pinnacles that crown each of the towers. The final version of his design called for a church 95 meters in length and 60 meters wide. The Sagrada Familia will have a total of 18 towers. The four towers on each of the three facades represent the 12 apostles. The Passion Facade stands on the Sagrada Familia's southwestern side. It is composed of a portico with six columns and three doors. The central door is divided in two by a mullion with the alpha and omega symbols. Its contrast to the Nativity Facade is dramatic. Almost entirely faithful to Gaudí's original design, it emphasizes the abyss between the birth of a child and the crucifixion and death of a man. In 1986, Josep Maria Subirach was chosen by project director Jordi Bonet to finish the Passion Facade. Subirach was picked for his starkly realistic, almost geometrical sculptural style, which matched Gaudí's artistic intent for the Passion Facade, even though his personal sculptural idiom was quite different. Choosing for the Passion Facade an artist with such radically different ideas and aesthetics from those of the Sagrada Familia's creator was a daring move by the project's directors, though to find a modern-day iconoclast as original and independent as Gaudí drastically limited their choices. Inside the Sagrada Familia, Gaudí was deeply influenced by nature and its forms. The columns of the Sagrada Familia soar overhead, forming a ceiling with the feel of a canopy of trees. The Sagrada Familia is a church of basilican layout in the shape of a Latin cross. The central axis is crossed by four lateral naves, each of which is 7.5 meters wide. The central nave is 15 meters wide for a total of 45 meters. The total length of the church, including the nave and the apse, is 95 meters. The transept is formed by three naves with a total width of 30 meters and a length of 60. Gaudí developed a sensuous, curving, almost surreal style that established him as the innovative leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau movement. Gaudí's characteristically warped form of Gothic architecture drew admiration from other avant-garde artists. He created an entirely original style and was one of the most important modernist architects worldwide. Eight of the planned 18 towers have been built and rise to over 100 meters. The tower's interior is hollow with a small spiral staircase that leads up it. The pinnacles of the towers are decorated with colorful mosaics and some are embedded with the words excelsis and hosanna.