Sagrada Família

Design

The style of Sagrada Família is variously likened to Spanish Late Gothic, Catalan Modernism or Art Nouveau. While the style falls within the Art Nouveau period, Nikolaus Pevsner points out that, along with Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, Scotland, Gaudí carried the Art Nouveau style far beyond its usual application as a surface decoration.

Plan

While never a cathedral, Sagrada Família was planned from the outset to be a large building, comparable in size to a cathedral. Its ground-plan has obvious links to earlier Spanish cathedrals such as Burgos Cathedral, León Cathedral and Seville Cathedral. In common with Catalan and many other European Gothic cathedrals, Sagrada Família is short in comparison to its width, and has a great complexity of parts, which include double aisles, an ambulatory with a chevet of seven apsidal chapels, a multitude of steeples and three portals, each widely different in structure as well as ornament. Where it is common for cathedrals in Spain to be surrounded by numerous chapels and ecclesiastical buildings, the layout of Sagrada Família has an unusual covered passage or cloister which forms a rectangle enclosing the church and passing through the narthex of each of its three portals. With this peculiarity aside, the plan, influenced by Villar's crypt, barely hints at the complexity of Gaudí's design or its deviations from traditional church architecture. There are no exact right angles to be seen inside or outside the church, and few straight lines in the design.

Spires

Gaudí's original design calls for a total of eighteen spires, representing in ascending order of height the Twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and, tallest of all, Jesus Christ. Fourteen spires have been completed as of 2026, corresponding to four apostles at the Nativity façade, four apostles at the Passion façade, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ.

The Evangelists' spires are surmounted by sculptures of their traditional symbols: a winged bull (Saint Luke), a winged man (Saint Matthew), an eagle (Saint John), and a winged lion (Saint Mark). The central spire of Jesus Christ is surmounted by a giant cross; its total height (172.5 metres (566 ft)) is less than that of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona, as Gaudí believed that his creation should not surpass God's. The lower spires are surmounted by communion hosts with sheaves of wheat and chalices with bunches of grapes, representing the Eucharist. Plans call for tubular bells to be placed within the spires, driven by the force of the wind, and driving sound down into the interior of the church. Gaudí performed acoustic studies to achieve the appropriate acoustic results inside the temple. However, as of 2004, only one bell was in place.

On 29 November 2021, a 7 m (23 ft) twelve-pointed illuminated crystal star was installed on one of the main towers of the basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

With the completion of the exterior of the Jesus Christ spire on 20 February 2026, the Sagrada Família is the tallest church building in the world—11 metres (36.1 ft) taller than the former record-holder, Ulm Minster, which is 161.5 metres (529.9 ft). The completion of the interior of the spire is expected in 2028.

The construction makes use of post-tensioned stone panels, which are pre-assembled before incorporation into the main structure; using this method has significant structural and operational benefits.

Façades

The church is designed to have three grand façades: the Nativity façade to the east, the Passion façade to the west, and the Glory façade to the south (incomplete).

The Nativity façade was built before work was interrupted in 1935 and bears the most direct Gaudí influence. Both it and the Passion façade have bell towers with biblical narratives in ornately carved stone topped with insignia-like pinnacles made from mosaics of Venetian glass.

The Passion façade was built according to the design that Gaudi created in 1917. The construction began in 1954, and the steeples, built over the elliptical plan, were finished in 1976. It is especially striking for its spare, gaunt, tormented characters, including emaciated figures of Christ being scourged at the pillar; and Christ on the Cross. These controversial designs are the work of Josep Maria Subirachs.

The Glory façade, the main entrance of the church, on which construction began in 2002, will be the largest and most monumental of the three and will represent one's ascension to God. It will also depict various scenes such as Hell, Purgatory, and will include elements such as the seven deadly sins and the seven heavenly virtues.

Nativity Façade

Constructed between 1893 and 1936, the Nativity façade was the first façade to be completed. Dedicated to the birth of Jesus, it is decorated with scenes reminiscent of elements of life. Characteristic of Gaudí's naturalistic style, the sculptures are ornately arranged and decorated with scenes and images from nature, each a symbol in its own manner. For instance, the three porticos are separated by two large columns, and at the base of each lies a turtle or a tortoise (one to represent the land and the other the sea; each are symbols of time as something set in stone and unchangeable). In contrast to the figures of turtles and their symbolism, two chameleons can be found at either side of the façade and are symbolic of change.

The façade faces the rising sun to the northeast, a symbol for the birth of Christ. It is divided into three porticos, each of which represents a theological virtue (Hope, Faith and Charity). The Tree of Life rises above the door of Jesus in the portico of Charity. Four steeples complete the façade and are each dedicated to a Saint (Matthias, Barnabas, Jude the Apostle, and Simon the Zealot).

Originally, Gaudí intended for this façade to be polychromed, for each archivolt to be painted with a wide array of colours. He wanted every statue and figure to be painted. In this way the figures of humans would appear as much alive as the figures of plants and animals.

Gaudí chose this façade to embody the structure and decoration of the whole church. He was well aware that he would not finish the church and that he would need to set an artistic and architectural example for others to follow. He also chose for this façade to be the first on which to begin construction and for it to be, in his opinion, the most attractive and accessible to the public. He believed that if he had begun construction with the Passion Façade, one that would be hard and bare (as if made of bones), before the Nativity Façade, people would have withdrawn at the sight of it. Some of the statues were destroyed in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War, and subsequently were reconstructed by the Japanese artist Etsuro Sotoo.

Passion Façade

In contrast to the highly decorated Nativity Façade, the Passion Façade is austere, plain and simple, with ample bare stone, and is carved with harsh straight lines to resemble the bones of a skeleton. Dedicated to the Passion of Christ, the suffering of Jesus during his crucifixion, the façade was intended to portray the sins of mankind. Construction began in 1954, following the drawings and instructions left by Gaudí for future architects and sculptors. The steeples were completed in 1976, and in 1987 a team of sculptors, headed by Josep Maria Subirachs, began work sculpting the scenes and details of the façade. They aimed to give a rigid, angular form to provoke a dramatic effect. Gaudí intended for this façade to strike fear into the onlooker. He wanted to "break" arcs and "cut" columns, and to use the effect of chiaroscuro (dark angular shadows contrasted by harsh rigid light) to further show the severity and brutality of Christ's sacrifice.

Facing the setting sun, indicative and symbolic of the death of Christ, the Passion Façade is supported by six large and inclined columns, designed to resemble strained muscles. Above, there is a pyramidal pediment, made up of eighteen bone-shaped columns, which culminate in a large cross with a crown of thorns. The columns also feature the Latin text which was displayed atop Jesus' cross. Each of the four steeples is dedicated to an apostle (James, Thomas, Philip, and Bartholomew) and, like the Nativity Façade, there are three porticos, each representing the theological virtues, though in a much different light.

The scenes sculpted into the façade may be divided into three levels, which ascend in an S form and reproduce the Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis of Christ). The lowest level depicts scenes from Jesus' last night before the crucifixion, including the Last Supper, Kiss of Judas, Ecce homo, and the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus. The middle level portrays the Calvary, or Golgotha, of Christ, and includes The Three Marys, Saint Longinus, Saint Veronica, and a hollow-face illusion of Christ on the Veil of Veronica. In the third and final level the Death, Burial and the Resurrection of Christ can be seen. A bronze figure situated on a bridge creating a link between the steeples of Saint Bartholomew and Saint Thomas represents the Ascension of Jesus.

The façade contains a magic square based on the magic square in the 1514 print Melencolia I. The square is rotated and one number in each row and column is reduced by one, so the rows and columns add up to 33 instead of the standard 34 for a 4x4 magic square.

Glory Façade

The largest and most striking of the façades will be the Glory Façade, on which construction began in 2002. The Façade faces south in order to capture the glory of the sun at its zenith, and additionally references Revelation 1:7. It will be the principal façade and will offer access to the central nave. Dedicated to the Celestial Glory of Jesus, it represents the road to God: Death, Final Judgment, and Glory, while Hell is left for those who deviate from God's will. Aware that he would not live long enough to see this façade completed, Gaudí made a model which was demolished in 1936, whose original fragments were used as the basis for the development of the design for the façade. The completion of this façade may require the partial demolition of the block of buildings across the Carrer de Mallorca. As of 2025, the architects say the plans will proceed despite protests.

To reach the Glory Portico, which is 13 feet above street level, a large staircase is intended to be built that will lead over the underground passage built over Carrer de Mallorca with the decoration representing Hell and vice. On other projects, Carrer de Mallorca will have to go underground. It is planned to be decorated with demons, idols, false gods, heresy and schisms, etc. Purgatory and death will also be depicted, the latter using tombs along the ground. The portico will have seven large columns dedicated to gifts of the Holy Spirit. At the base of the columns there will be representations of the seven deadly sins, and at the top, the seven heavenly virtues.

• Gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.
• Sins: greed, lust, pride, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy.
• Virtues: kindness, diligence, patience, charity, temperance, humility, chastity.

This façade will have five doors corresponding to the five naves of the temple, with the central one having a triple entrance, that will give the Glory Façade a total seven doors representing the sacraments:

• Baptism
• Confirmation
• Eucharist
• Penance
• Holy orders
• Marriage
• Anointing of the sick

In September 2008, the doors of the Glory façade, by Subirachs, were installed. These central doors bear the text of the Our Father prayer in Catalan in high relief, accompanied with the words "Our Father" and "Give us this day our daily bread" inscribed in fifty different languages. The handles of the door are the letters "A" and "G", forming the initials of Antoni Gaudí, within the phrase no permeteu que caiguem en la temptació ("lead us not into temptation").

Interior

The church plan is that of a Latin cross with five aisles. The central nave vaults reach forty-five metres (148 feet) while the side nave vaults reach thirty metres (98 feet). The transept has three aisles. The columns are on a 7.5 metres (25 ft) grid. However, the columns of the apse, resting on del Villar's foundation, do not adhere to the grid, requiring a section of columns of the ambulatory to transition to the grid thus creating a horseshoe pattern to the layout of those columns. The crossing rests on the four central columns of porphyry supporting a great hyperboloid surrounded by two rings of twelve hyperboloids (currently under construction). The central vault reaches sixty metres (200 ft). The apse is capped by a hyperboloid vault reaching seventy-five metres (246 ft). Gaudí intended that a visitor standing at the main entrance be able to see the vaults of the nave, crossing, and apse, thus the graduated increase in vault loft.

There are gaps in the floor of the apse, providing a view into the crypt below.

The columns of the interior are a unique Gaudí design. Besides branching to support their load, their ever-changing surfaces are the result of the intersection of various geometric forms. The simplest example is that of a square base evolving into an octagon as the column rises, then a sixteen-sided form, and eventually to a circle. This effect is the result of a three-dimensional intersection of helicoidal columns (for example a square cross-section column twisting clockwise and a similar one twisting counterclockwise).

Essentially none of the interior surfaces are flat; the ornamentation is comprehensive and rich, consisting in large part of abstract shapes which combine smooth curves and jagged points. Even detail-level work such as the iron railings for balconies and stairways are full of curvaceous elaboration.

Organ

In 2010 an organ was installed in the chancel by the Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat organ builders. The instrument has 26 stops (1,492 pipes) on two manuals and a pedalboard.

To overcome the unique acoustical challenges posed by the church's architecture and vast size, several additional organs will be installed at various points within the building. These instruments will be playable separately (from their own individual consoles) and simultaneously (from a single mobile console), yielding an organ of some 8,000 pipes when completed.

Geometric details

The steeples on the Nativity façade are crowned with geometrically shaped tops that are reminiscent of Cubism (they were finished around 1930), and the intricate decoration is contemporary to the style of Art Nouveau, but Gaudí's unique style drew primarily from nature, not other artists or architects, and resists categorization.

Gaudí used hyperboloid structures in later designs for Sagrada Família (more obviously after 1914). However, there are a few places on the nativity façade—a design not equated with Gaudí's ruled-surface design—where the hyperboloid appears. For example, all around the scene with the pelican, there are numerous examples (including the basket held by one of the figures). There is a hyperboloid adding structural stability to the cypress tree (by connecting it to the bridge). Finally, the "bishop's mitre" spires are capped with hyperboloid structures. In his later designs, ruled surfaces are prominent in the nave's vaults and windows and the surfaces of the Passion façade.

Symbolism

Themes throughout the decoration include words from the liturgy. The steeples are decorated with words such as "Hosanna", "Excelsis", and "Sanctus"; the great doors of the Passion façade reproduce excerpts of the Passion of Jesus from the New Testament in various languages, mainly Catalan; and the Glory façade is to be decorated with the words from the Apostles' Creed, while its main door reproduces the entire Lord's Prayer in Catalan, surrounded by multiple variations of "Give us this day our daily bread" in other languages. The three entrances symbolize the three virtues: Faith, Hope and Love. Each of them is also dedicated to a part of Christ's life. The Nativity Façade is dedicated to his birth; it also has a cypress tree which symbolizes the tree of life. The Glory façade is dedicated to his Christ's glory period. The Passion façade is symbolic of Christ's suffering. The apse steeple bears Latin text of the Hail Mary prayer.

Areas of the sanctuary will be designated to represent various concepts, such as saints, virtues and sins, and secular concepts such as regions, presumably with decoration to match.

Burials

• José María Bocabella
• Antoni Gaudí

Appraisal

The art historian Nikolaus Pevsner, writing in the 1960s, referred to Gaudí's buildings as growing "like sugar loaves and anthills" and describes the ornamenting of buildings with shards of broken pottery as possibly "bad taste" but handled with vitality and "ruthless audacity".

The building's design itself has been polarizing. Assessments by Gaudí's fellow architects were generally positive; Louis Sullivan greatly admired it, describing Sagrada Família as the "greatest piece of creative architecture in the last twenty-five years. It is spirit symbolised in stone!" Walter Gropius praised Sagrada Família, describing the building's walls as "a marvel of technical perfection". Time magazine called it "sensual, spiritual, whimsical, exuberant" in 1990. However, author and critic George Orwell, mistakenly referring to it as a cathedral, called it "one of the most hideous buildings in the world" in 1938. Author James A. Michener called it "one of the strangest-looking serious buildings in the world" and British historian Gerald Brenan stated about the building "Not even in the European architecture of the period can one discover anything so vulgar or pretentious." The building's distinctive silhouette has nevertheless become symbolic of Barcelona itself, drawing an estimated 3 million visitors annually by 1990 and 5 million in 2025. LEGO released its largest set ever in 2026, with 12,060 pieces forming a model of Sagrada Família.

World Heritage status

In 1984, UNESCO granted World Heritage Site designations to three Gaudí buildings in Barcelona, though not yet including Sagrada Família, under the collective designation "Works of Antoni Gaudí – No 320 bis" (items 320-001 to 320-003), testifying "to Gaudí's exceptional creative contribution to the development of architecture and building technology", "having represented el Modernisme of Catalonia" and "anticipated and influenced many of the forms and techniques that were relevant to the development of modern construction in the 20th century". In 2005, UNESCO extended the inscription for Works of Antoni Gaudí – No 320 bis to include four additional buildings in Barcelona, with item 320-005 listed as two specific sections of Sagrada Família: the Crypt and the Nativity façade.

Visitor access

Visitors can access the nave, crypt, museum, shop, and the Passion and Nativity steeples. Entrance to either of the steeples requires a reservation and advance purchase of a ticket. Access is possible only by lift (elevator) and a short walk up the remainder of the steeples to the bridge between the steeples. Descent is via a very narrow spiral staircase of over 300 steps. There is a posted caution for those with medical conditions.

As of June 2017, online ticket purchase has been available. As of August 2010, there had been a service whereby visitors could buy an entry code either at Servicaixa ATM kiosks (part of CaixaBank) or online.

International masses

The Archdiocese of Barcelona holds an international mass at the Basilica of the Sagrada Família every Sunday and on holy days of obligation.

• Date and time: Every Sunday and on holy days of obligation at 9 am.
• There is no charge for attending mass but capacity is limited.
• Visitors are asked to dress appropriately and behave respectfully.

Funding and building permit

Construction on Sagrada Família is not supported by any government or official church sources. Private patrons funded the initial stages. Money from tickets purchased by tourists is now used to pay for the work, and private donations are accepted.

The construction budget for 2009 was €18 million.

In October 2018, Sagrada Família trustees agreed to pay city authorities €36 million for a building permit, after 136 years of unlicensed construction. Most of the funds would be directed to improve the access between the church and the Barcelona Metro. The permit was issued by the city on 7 June 2019.

Incidents

On 19 April 2011, an arsonist started a small fire in the sacristy which forced the evacuation of tourists and construction workers. The sacristy was damaged, and the fire took 45 minutes to contain.

In August 2017, Barcelona was the target of a series of terrorist attacks with Islamist motivations, commonly referred to as the La Rambla attacks. Investigations later revealed that one of the original targets was the Sagrada Família basilica. The attackers had planned to detonate a van loaded with gas canisters at the site during peak visiting hours to cause maximum damage. However, the plan was abandoned after an accidental explosion involving the gas canisters occurred in Alcanar, in southern Catalonia, days before the main attack.

On 11 March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, construction temporarily stopped and the basilica was closed. This was the first time the construction had been halted since the Spanish Civil War. The basilica reopened, initially to key workers, on 4 July 2020.

Stairway and avenue disputes

Given the Sagrada Família was built elevated, the main entrance (Glory Façade) stands 5 metres (16 ft) taller than the street (C/ Mallorca). Although Gaudí's plans are disputed (given that he first designed star-shaped avenues leading to the basilica), the Construction Board defends that Gaudi's last plans were to build a long 57 metres (187 ft) stairway passing over Mallorca street and leading into a 2-block avenue from the basilica to Diagonal Avenue. Local residents have concerns about this, as the demolition of two city blocks would imply the losses of about 3,000 homes as well as some businesses.

Currently, there are talks between the Construction Board, the City Council and Neighbours' Associations to try to find the best solution, which is worsened by the current Spanish housing crisis. However, Barcelona's still legal 1976 urban planning (Plan General Metropolitano) defines the 2-block area as part of the Sagrada Família and states that housing was not supposed to be constructed there. In 2019, the Construction Board bought nearby land, and recently mayor Jaume Collboni implied they would have to fund the relocation of affected residents in order to demolish the two blocks.