The Sagrada Família is a oneofakind temple, for its origins, foundation and purpose. Fruit of the work of genius architect Antoni Gaudí, the project was promoted by the people for the people. Five generations now have watched the Temple progress in Barcelona. Today, more than 140 years after the laying of the cornerstone, construction continues on the Basilica.
Original design for the project for the Sagrada Família by diocesan architect Francisco de Paula del Villar following the prevailing guidelines of the time, with neoGothic elements: ogival windows, buttresses, flying buttresses and a pointed bell tower. Technical differences, about the cost of materials, led this architect to be replaced with another who was starting to stand out in the field, Antoni Gaudí, who took the project in a different direction, transforming it into an ambitious proposal for the church of the future.
History of Sagrada Familia
1882: Project designed by Francisco de Paula del Villar. On 19 March, Bishop Urquinaona lays the cornerstone of the Temple.
1883: Antoni Gaudí takes over the project, while still working on other buildings.
1885: Chapel of Saint Joseph inaugurated in the crypt and first masses held.
1891: Work begins on the Nativity façade.
1914: Antoni Gaudí begins working exclusively on the Temple, until his death. The bell tower dedicated to the apostle Barnabas was the only one Gaudí would see finished.
1925: Saint Barnabas bell tower on the Nativity façade is completed.
1926: Gaudí dies and his disciple Domènec Sugranyes takes over the project.
1936: La Sagrada Família is vandalised during the Spanish Civil War. Plans and photographs are burnt and the plaster models, smashed.
1939: Francesc de Paula Quintana takes over site management, which is able to go on thanks to the material that could be saved from Gaudí’s workshop and that was reconstructed from published plans and photographs.
1952: Staircase on the Nativity façade is built, and the façade is lit up for the first time.
1954: Foundation laid for the Passion façade.
1955: The first collection is held.
1958: On 19 March, the feast of Saint Joseph, a sculpture group representing the Holy Family is put in place, created by Jaume Busquets.
1961: Museum created to explain historical, technical, artistic and symbolic aspects of the Temple to visitors.
1966: Francesc de Paula Quintana dies and Isidre Puig i Boada and Lluís Bonet i Garí take over.
1976: Bell towers on the Passion façade completed.
1978: Construction begins on the façades on the side naves.
1983: Francesc Cardoner i Blanch takes over the project.
1985: Jordi Bonet i Armengol is named head architect and site manager.
1986: Josep Maria Subirachs is commissioned to make the sculpture groups for the Passion façade. Work began on the foundations for all the naves, the columns, vaults and façades on the main nave, transepts, crossing and apse. The works were completed in 2010.
Until the middle of the 20th century, construction was still done using wood scaffolding. A far cry from the means used today.
2005: The Nativity façade and crypt are named UNESCO world heritage.
2010: On 7 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the Basilica for religious worship and designated it a minor basilica.
2011: 2010 Barcelona City Award in Architecture and Urban Planning goes to the Temple nave.
2012: Jordi Faulí takes over from Jordi Bonet as head architect and site manager for the works on the Temple of the Sagrada Família, which carry on according to Antoni Gaudí’s plans.
2016: Construction begins on the towers of the Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.
Work is completed on the western sacristy and the cloister of Our Lady of Dolours.
2018: July 2018 The Cross is placed on top of the pediment of the Passion façade.
2019: The first stone panels arrive for the tower of Jesus Christ, the tower of the Evangelists and the tower of the Virgin Mary and they start to take shape.
2020: February 2020 The tower of Jesus Christ and the tower of the Virgin Mary surpass the height of the towers on the Passion and Nativity façades.
March 2020 The Junta Constructora de la Sagrada Família stops construction due to the Covid19 healthcare emergency.October 2020 Work resumes, focusing on completing the tower of the Virgin Mary, with all the levels of panels in place and only the elements of the 25metre pinnacle remaining, which will be crowned with a shining twelvepointed star.
2021: In 2021 all efforts focus on finishing the tower of the Virgin Mary, the Basilica’s second tallest at 138 metres.
In 2022, two of the four towers of the Evangelists were completed: Luke and Mark.
On 12 November 2023 the Sagrada Família inaugurated the four the towers of the Evangelists, with the central event of the mass and the subsequent blessing and lighting up for the first time.