by Christa Nwokedi

Created on: February 26, 2010   Last Updated: February 27, 2010

A visitor's guide to the La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

The basilica is the life work of Barcelona’s favorite son, Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926). The official title of the basilica is, "La Sagrada Familia, Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family" (Expiatori de la Sagrada Família).

In 1866, literate Joseph Maria Bocabella founded the “Association of Devotees of St.Joseph” to build a church in order to demonstrate the triumph of the Catholic Church over the de-Christianization movement that had evolved as a result of the rapid developments of the Industrial Revolution. On his way to Italy to see the Holy Father, Joseph Bobacella passed through the little town, Loretta, with an admirable, beautiful municipality church and decided to build a replica in Barcelona.

In 1872, Bocacella obtained a plot near Barcelona, now located in the center of the town. In 1877, Architect Francisco de Paula de Villar designed the gigantic, privately funded Roman Catholic Church in Neo gothic style with the typical three naves, and a crypt at a right angle to the naves. The technical advancements of the booming Industrial revolution provided appropriate building materials at the right time for such extraordinary undertaking, and the necessary funds.

In 1880, construction work began under the supervision of Antoni Gaudi. Three years later the entire project was assigned to the 31 years old architect Antoni Gaudi. He totally redesigned the original work of Francesco de Villar for the entire project. Gaudi believed that Neo gothic architecture did not give adequate support of arches and vaults, that the flying buttresses and not the walls, as it might appear, carry the loads. These constructions would suffer rapid deterioration. Gaudi changed the load-bearing structure of this immense monumental building to columns. Further, he introduced decorative capitals based on natural forms; he provided a trench around the crypt for light and ventilation.

Gaudi followed his desire to create “the last great sanctuary of Christendom.” He chose to outline the church as a Latin cross over the crypt; he created a main altar surrounded by seven chapels dedicated to the pains seven sins and suffering of St. Joseph. Eighteen spindles towers do represent, in ascending order of height from 90 to 120m, the twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ with the tallest tower of 170 m height in the center. All towers are parabolically

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