Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família

The founding of the Spiritual Association of Devotees of Saint Joseph (1866) by Josep Maria Bocabella was the origin of the Sagrada Família project. In 1874 the association began to promote the construction of an expiatory church and, thanks to various donations, it purchased a plot of 12,800 sq.m. between the streets of Marina, Provença, Sardenya and Mallorca.

The cornerstone was laid on 19 March 1882, the feast of Saint Joseph, in a solemn ceremony presided over by the city’s bishop, Josep Urquinaona. The work then began, starting with the crypt beneath the apse according to the Neo-Gothic design by Francisco de Paula del Villar, the church’s first architect. He left the project shortly afterwards due to disagreements with the developers, and the commission was then given to Gaudí.

As from 1914 Gaudí ceased to work on any other projects and the building of the Sagrada Família became his sole occupation. This explains why he did not carry out any other major works in the last years of his life. In fact, his involvement was so intense that he lived his last months right beside his workshop, in a space located next to the apse which was set up as a studio for scale models, designs and sculptures and as a photographic darkroom. 

In 1923 he designed the final solution for the aisles and the roofs, although the work was progressing slowly at that time. The first bell tower, that of the Nativity Façade, which was dedicated to Saint Barnabas, rose to a height of 100 metres and was completed at the end of 1925. This is the only bell tower that Gaudí ever came to see completed since on 10 June 1926 he died from a tragic accident which had occurred three days earlier when he was run over by a tram. On 12 June he was buried in the Chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the crypt of the Sagrada Família, where his remains still rest today. Fortunately, during the last years of his work on the church Gaudí had a large group of architects, draughtsmen, sculptors and model makers under his direction to work on the project. 

On the death of Gaudí, his close assistant Domènec Sugrañes took over the management of the works until 1938. It was under his supervision that the bell towers of the Nativity Façade, the Faith Doorway and the central Cypress Tree were finished.

In July 1936, in response to the military uprising and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, revolutionaries burned the crypt and the Provisional Schools of the Sagrada Família, destroying the workshop as well. As a result, the drawings of the church and the original photographs were lost and part of the plaster scale models were destroyed. Despite these acts of vandalism, however, the construction of the church has never halted since Gaudí took charge of the project and the architect‘s intentions have always been followed.

After the Spanish Civil War, the burnt crypt was restored and many of the damaged models were mended thanks to the work of the architect Francesc de Paula Quintana. This made it possible to have the models on hand to continue the works according to the original plans. The work on the foundations of the Passion Façade began in 1954, on the basis of the many studies carried out by Gaudí. After the foundations, a crypt was built and there, in 1961, a museum was set up to explain to visitors the historical, technical, artistic and symbolic aspects of the church. The four bell towers of the Passion Façade were completed in 1976.