THE TEMPLE’S BEGINNINGS AND GAUDÍ’S PROJECT
After the resignation of Villar, Joan Martorell, who advised the Josefina Association and was one of the most prestigious architects of the time, proposed Antoni Gaudí as a continuation of the works begun. At the time, Gaudí was a young architect, with 31 years of age, and he accepted the position of managing director on November 3, 1883.
Gaudí continued the works designed by Villar and, as he gained prestige as an architect - and at the same time the confidence of the Josephine association -, he gradually transformed the initial project to the point of reaching a large, monumental temple around 1890. The new conception of the building is no longer limited to a typical Latin cross church. It increases the scale and projects a main body of five naves with a transept of three, and a monumental façade at each end, dedicated to the Nativity - east transept -, the Passion - west transept - and the Glory, located at the foot of the main nave. To join the three façades, there is a perimeter cloister, which surrounds the nave and the surrounding island, with a building on each corner dedicated to sacristies, a baptistery and a chapel of the Sacrament and Penance.
The new building has a great symbolic value as a manifestation of the Christian faith - which is inseparable from art and architecture - and gains in verticality. The three façades contain four towers each, about 100 metres high, dedicated to the twelve apostles. In the centre of the transept is a large dome, consisting of six towers even taller than the previous ones, dedicated to the Virgin Mary - on the apse -, the four Evangelists - one on each corner of the transept - and the large central tower of Jesus Christ, about 170 feet.
Gaudí devoted the rest of his life to the design and construction of the Temple, and exclusively from 1914, when he ceased his professional activity outside the Sagrada Família.
During Gaudí’s lifetime, the crypt, the façade of the apse and much of the Nativity Façade were built.
GAUDÍ'S PROJECT: THE NEW ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE
From the moment Gaudí devoted himself exclusively to the Sagrada Família - from 1914 until his death in 1926 - he focused on perfecting and detailing the project while building the Façade of the Nativity. He will maintain the monumental approach established around 1890 and will incorporate the learning acquired throughout his career. At this stage, Gaudí moves away definitively from the reinterpretation of the previous historical styles and will incorporate a new resistant scheme - that had the pretension to surpass the gothic one and will culminate with the arborescent structure - that is based on a very personal style generated from regulated geometries and the double-turned column, which he devises.
The geometric complexity of the solutions proposed by Gaudí made it necessary to develop the project in scale plaster models (mainly 1:25 and 1:10), made in the workshop of the temple itself.
In this last stage he developed the project with the help of collaborating architects, where we can highlight, among others, Domènec Sugrañes in the structural issues and Francesc de Paula Quintana in the geometric ones, which would be crucial for the continuation of the works after his death.
From 1915 Gaudí regularly received young people interested in his work, among whom we can highlight the architects Lluís Bonet Garí, Isidre Puig Boada -who would later continue the work- and Josep Francesc Ràfols, Francesc Folguera, Cèsar Martinell and Joan Bergós, who would study and disseminate his work.
Therefore, and probably without being aware of it, he devoted himself to creating a school, a school that would later be decisive for the continuation of the works.
In 1969, the part of the Temple Built by Gaudí was declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest (then a Historic-Artistic Monument), and in 2005 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Collaborating architects of Gaudí and / or transmitters of his work:
- Francesc Berenguer Mestres
- Joan Bergós Massó
- Josep Canaleta i Cuadras
- Francesc Folguera i Grassi
- Josep Maria Jujol i Gibert
- Cèsar Martinell i Brunet
- Francesc de Paula Quintana i Vidal
- Domènec Sugrañes i Gras
- Josep Francesc Ràfols i Fontanals
- Joan Rubió i Bellver.
