Travel writers have described Sagrada Familia’s Nativity Façade as if “Someone left the cake out in the rain.” Borrowing a term from Jimmy Webb’s MacArthur Park. Webb, in turn took the line from WH Auden who said his lined face looked like a wedding cake that someone left out in the rain. The phrase describes the dripping fluid stonework and ornamentation of façade fairly accurately. James Mitchner called it one of the strangest looking serious buildings in the world.
It differs from the more angular and severe Passion Façade on the other side of the building.
Antoni Gaudi dedicated the last 43 years of his life to constructing the Basilica. Francisco Paula del Villar was the first architect. He envisioned a neo-Gothic church. He started in 1882 but quit a year later. When Gaudi took over some work had been done on the crypt. He blew up the original plans while still building on that foundation. He wanted to create a building that was Gothic in style but Art Nouveau/Modernisme in feel.
He envisioned a massive work with three facades, Nativity, Passion and Glory (resurrection), 18 towers, five naves, and an exterior cloister style ambulatory.
According to the film shown in the museum in the crypt he concentrated on the Nativity Façade because if he got that done it would be difficult to change the direction of the work. When he died, he was hit by a tram in 1926, only about 20% of the building was complete. He realized that he would not complete the building in his life time “My client (God) is not in a hurry.” He also recognized that architects who followed would add their own touches and flourishes, that was fine with him. His concentration on the Facades was part of his belief that the statues and story line of the church be told outside, inside the church would be a forest of light and shadow (see the next post.)
Like ancient Gothic Cathedrals, Sagrada Familia would take over a century to build. Work was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. In 1936 anarchist and anti-clerical revolutionaries broke into Gaudi’s workshop, burned blueprints and drawings and smashed three dimensional models that Gaudi had made. Gaudi preferred to work from models rather than flat prints.
In future years architects tried to piece together the smashed models from photos. In later years aeronautical design software and 3D printing were used to reconstruct some of the models. The model workshop is in the crypt, behind glass but visible to the public.
In 2010 Pope Benedict dedicated the church as a minor Basilica. It coincided with the point in construction when the entire building was enclosed and ready for worship. The building was scheduled to be completed this year, the centenary of Gaudi’s Death, but the pandemic stopped construction for a while. However, on June 10, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s Death, Pope Leo conducted mass at the basilica. The video in the crypt said he dedicated it as a church “by the people and for the people,” channeling another historic figure from Illinois. Now the target for completion is 2030. Our cab driver told us to be sure to mark it on our calendars and to return for the final dedication.
