The Sagrada Familia church

The Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) is a church in Barcelona, Spain. This gigantic church in the so called neocatalan style and Catalan modernism is overloaded with towers and ornaments. People have been building for a long time on the church. So long, that the complete parts already need renovation. Many people think that all the work will never be completed.



The architect who designed the Sagrada Familia is Antoni Gaudí, the designer of more other characteristic buildings in Barcelona (like Casa Battló and Parc Guëll).

Originally the church was a classic neogothic church by design of Francisco de Paula del Villar. But after one year, in 1883, Gaudí was assigned to be responsible for the design and building of the Sagrada Familia. He changed the original plans of the building dramatically and started building the church in his own excentric style. The building is full of Christian symbolism.

There was so much work to do on the Sagrada Familia that Antoni Gaudí didn't have time for other assignments. He dedicated the last years of his life to the Sagrada Familia. When he accidentily came under a tram in 1926 and died, he got buried in the crypt of his own masterpiece.

The Sagrada Familia, (a Catholic church) is the masterpiece of Gaudí. This temple is by now the symbol of modernistic architecture in Barcelona. During the building of the Sagrada Familia, Gaudí insisted that he knew everything about the construction of the church. He teached the workers by himself, looked after all details and kept changing his ideas until the style wasn't Gothic anymore.

Sagrada Familia - The beginning

The idea to build the Sagrada Familia came from a bookseller called Joseph María Bocabella. He did this to keep the keep remembering the people of the Catholic religion. After a lot of donations Bocabella bought a piece of land of 12.800 square meters. The architect Francisco de Paula del Villar offered Bocabella to make plans for the Sagrada Familia for free. His design became totally neogothic.



Del Villar started with the construction of the crypt but after a year he got into a fight with Bocabella and got fired. Afterwards Gaudí got the assignment via Juan Martorell. He finished the crypt like the ideas of del Villar, but gave his own twist on it. Gaudí made a lot of maquettes to work out all the fine details that the design of the Sagrada Familia has.

Sagrada Familia - Details

Every part of the Sagrada Familia has it's own theme. The west part of the church, the facade of the Passion, is about the suffering of Jesus Christ and is designed with many edgy sculptures. The eastern facade is about the birth of Jesus Christ.



There is many decoration on the church, like the three portals: "Fe", "Esperanca" and "Caridad" (faith, hope and love). If the construction is finished, the Sagrada Familia will be the biggest church of the whole world.

The tops of the different towers are probably inspired by the cubism and the decorations probably by the style called Art Nouveau.

Sagrada Familia - The finance

The Sagrada Familia is only funded by donations, which is also a reason why the construction is taking so long. From the eightees on the construction of the Sagrada Familia is also being financed by entrance money. Because the Sagrada Familia has many visits every day, the construction goes faster then before. In the beginning there were only two people working on the Sagrada Familia. Nowadays, there are about a hundred people working on the Sagrada Familia, including fifteen architects.

Sagrada Familia - The duration of the construction

In 1881 Francesco de Paula del Villar got the assignment to build the Sagrada Familia, which was handed over to Gaudí in 1883. Originally, Antoni Gaudí thought he was able to finish the construction of the Sagrada Familia within ten years. Altough, in a few years Gaudí found out that it was impossible to finish the construction in that short amount of time. That's why he made a lot of maquettes and drawings of the Sagrada Familia.

When Gaudí died in 1926, there was enough work for other architects to continue with. After that, the workshop of Gaudí set fire, and a lot of models and drawings of Gaudí set fire as well.

It is expected that the construction of the Sagrada Familia will be finished around 2025.

Click here for the official website of the Sagrada Familia.

The famous architect Antoni Gaudí

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Spanish architect. He designed a couple of remarkable buildings and other objects in and outside Barcelona, of which Sagrada Família is the most famous.



Antoni Gaudí is considered as one of the founders of the organical architecture. His work belongs to the Art Nouveau / Jugendstil. In Catalonia this style of art is named as Modernisme Catalá.

The youth and study of Gaudí

Gaudí was born in a Catalan place called Reus in 1852. His family was not really wealthy at that time, and Antoni was suffering of the reuma disease from his childhood.

On his seventeenth Antoni Gaudí left to Barcelona to study architecture at the Escola Superior d'Architectura. Gaudí worked with a few architects in that time to make a living. He was a very good, but excentric student.

How Gaudí got his name

Despite the fact that Gaudí was an excentric person, he managed to finish his study. With the handover of Gaudí's diploma the mayor Elie Rogent said: "We have a fool in our middle, or a genius." Remarkable was, that Gaudí was a bit of a dandy at that time, while he basically only lived for his work. He was never married, but rumours tell that he had been engaged once around 1884.

In the time that Gaudí finished his study there was a big variety in the European architecture, which gave him a big chance to develop himself. Gaudí hung around with a lot of intellectual people. He was interested in the Gothic style.



In 1883 Gaudí got the assignment to design Sagrada Família, which was the beginning of his very famous career.

The death of Gaudí

On the 7th of June 1926 Gaudí got ran over by a tram. Altough he was very famous, not many people would have recognized him. That's why taxi drivers refused to take him to the hospital after this terrible accident.

Three days later Gaudí died. His funeral was one te remember, with many people who loved him as a person and for his remarkable work of art. His body lies in the crypt of Sagrada Família.

Gaudi's materials, construction and way of working

Antoni Gaudí was very practical minded. He worked a lot with scale models instead of drawings, to test the strength of a construction for example. His drawings of buildings were not exact most of the time. When his work was being built he discussed a lot with the construction workers.

Because Gaudí didn't put many things on paper, it's hard for current architects to follow his way of working.



Gaudí's buildings made an extravagant impression to people, but he usually used relativily cheap material. For example the mosaïcs he made were made out of leftovers from ceramic companies.

The designs of Gaudí

Below is a list of Gaudí's designs:

• Casa Vicens (1883-1889)


• El Capricho (1883-1885)


• Sagrada Família (1883-present)


• Finca Güell (1884-1887)


• Palau Güell (1886-1889)


• Colegio Teresiano (1888-1889)


• Casa Calvet (1898-1900)


• Cripta Colònia Güell (1898-1917)


• Bellesguard (1900-1909)


• Casa Calvet (1898-1900)


• Parc Güell (1900-1914)


• Casa Batlló (1904-1906)


• Casa Milà / La Pedrera (1906-1910)

Barcelona demography

In the city of Barcelona live more than 1,6 million people and the metropole of Barcelona has 5.327.872 civilians (in 2006).

In 2005 about 14% of the civilians where immigrants, which is about 224.000 people. The most of the immigrants are from Latin America, Ecuador, Peru, Argentinia, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic and Colombia. A lot of the rest of the immigrants are from Italy, France, Germany and England.

All the people from different countries make Barcelona a city with a lot of different cultures. The combination of the Catalan and Spanish lifestyle, the Mediterranean climate and the constant growing amount of foreigners make Barcelona a city of it's kind.

History of Barcelona

There are different theories of the founding of Barcelona. According to one of these theories Barcelona should have been founded 400 years before the founding of Rome by Hercules. Later should the Carthager Hamilcar Barkas, the father of Hannibal, have expanded the city in the 3th century before Chr., and named it to himself (Barcino). According to another legend Hamilcar would have founded the city himself.

However, the first traces of civilisation in and around Barcelona are from the period of 2000-1500 before Chr. The first people that ever civilised the land where the city is now situated were the "Layetanos", Iberian people.

During the second Punic war Barcelona was taken by the Carthagers, and in 218 before Chr. by the Romans. Barcelona was given the name "Julia Augusta Paterna Faventia Barcino". Barcino was being used as a military fort in that time.

In the 3rd century after Chr. Barcelona (Barcino) counted about 6000 civilians, but was just one of the many establishments in the Roman route from Rome to Cádiz. Also Barcelona wasn't even the most important establishment in that time. "Tarraco", know known as "Tarragona" was the most important establishment at that time. "Tarraco" was the capital of "Hispania Tarraconensis", a big Roman province.

In the 5th century "Barcino" was invaded by the the Visgots, who turned Barcelona into an important economic center. In the 7th century Barcelona was taken by the Mores. A big part of the civilisation of Barcelona of that time flee to the Pyrenees.

In 801 Barcelona was possessed by the Francic empire. In 985 a big part of Barcelona was ravaged by heavy attacks of the Arabic leader of the Califat of Córdoba: "Almansur", who never managed to take over Barcelona.

At the end of the 9th century Barcelona was part of the "Empire of Aragón", and Barcelona was being rebuilt under the leadership of count "Borrel II". He managed to make a rich and powerful countship of Barcelona. In the 13th and 14th century Barcelona became one of the most important cities of the Mediterranean area, together with Venetia and Genua.

After the king of the Spanish empire married Isabella of Castilia, the country was the victim of many conflicts. Also Barcelona was the victim of many conflicts. It started with the "Catalan Revolt" from 1640 to 1651 and later the "Spanish Succession War" from 1706 to 1714, which ended the independency of Catalonia.



After the long grey period Barcelona became an important political, economical and cultural center again in the 19th century. This period is also known as the "rebirth" of Barcelona. IN 1897 a lot of the city walls were being broken down to connect Barcelona with the surrounding villages again and to grow again. The expansion started with the building of the area of Eixample, designed by "Ildefons Cerdà".

At the beginning of the 20th century the economy and the industry of Barcelona started to grow and new modern idologies entered the town.

The climate of Barcelona

Barcelona has a mediterranean climate, which means long summers and not too cold winters, with little extremes. Mostly in March the first days start with temperatures aboves 20 degrees Celsius, which can last until the end of November.



The hottest months are July and August, then it can be above 30 degrees Celsius during the day, and above 20 at night.

In the hottest days of the year the civilians of Barcelona tend to escape from the heat of the city, which makes Barcelona turn into some kind of "hibernation".

The temperatures in the winters in Barcelona are pretty soft, and there's little rain. But mostly when it rains, it rains really hard.

The geography of Barcelona

Barcelona lies at the Mediterranean Sea, and is surrounded by the mountains of Serra de Collserola. In the south of Barcelona lies the river Llobregat and in the north the river Besòs.



The city lies about 160km below the Pyrenees. The Mountains of Serra de Collserola form some kind of border around Barcelona. The highest point is the mountain Tibidabo, 512 meters high with on top the "Collserola tower", a telephone tower.

The city itself has been built on lots of hills: Carmel, Monterols, Putxet, Rovira, and Peira. The hill Montjuic lies in the southeast of the city, near the sea, and has a great view of the city. In history this hill was used as a fort, but now you can find museums, restaurants and the stadium and swimming pool of the Olympic Summer Games of 1992.

The city Barcelona

Barcelona is, after Madrid, the biggest City of Spain. It's the capital of Catalonia, and also of the province Barcelona. The city had 1.605.602 in the beginning of 2006, and the whole metropole counted 5.327.872 people.



The citizens often name Barcelona as "Barna", not to be confused with "Barça", which is used for the soccer team FC Barcelona. Barcelona is situated at the Mediterranean Sea, at the so called Costa del Maresme, between Costa Brava and Costa Daurada. The city lies only 160km from the Pyrenees.

More information can be found on the official website of Barcelona.