2024-03-31 09:59:34
Esteve Camps, president of the organization tasked with completing architect Antoni Gaudi’s masterpiece, announced the date last Wednesday to coincide with the centenary of the building’s architect’s death.
He added that the organization has enough money and materials to complete the building, including the 172.5m central tower dedicated to Jesus Christ. This will make the basilica the tallest building in Barcelona.
Although the building is expected to be completed by 2026, work on sculptures and decorative details, most notably the controversial staircase leading up to what will eventually become the main entrance, will continue until 2034.
Controversial stairs
When the construction work of the church began, the area around it was not inhabited – it was an open field. However, in a few years, a city grew up around the church. About 1,000 people would have to be evicted during the construction of the stairs, which would extend over two city blocks. families and companies.
Although some Gaudi researchers dispute this, E. Camps claims that the staircase was always part of the architect’s plan.
“We are fully following A. Gaudi’s plan,” he assured. – We are his heirs and we cannot abandon his project. The stairs are provided for in the plan presented to the local authorities in 1915, which was signed by A. Gaudi himself.”
He added that they are discussing the plan with Barcelona’s mayor, Jaume Collboni, as the local government has the final say.
“I don’t have a crystal ball to say when they will make a decision,” Camps explained.
Since the beginning of the construction of the basilica, it has been accompanied by war, neglect and lack of funds. Recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, work at the site was suspended for two years.
In the past, the construction work was financed only by the donations of repentant sinners, so the flow of money was unpredictable and many doubted that the work would ever be completed. Poet Joan Maragal described the basilica as “architectural poetry… a temple that will never be finished”.
However, tourism has been guaranteeing constant income for several decades – almost 5 million people visit here per year. visitors who pay 25-40 euros per visit, and a total of 125 million euros are collected per year. euros. Just over half of that sum is being spent on building completion, but how the rest is spent is still a mystery, as the church is not required to publish its accounts.
In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, anarchist fighters set fire to the crypt and destroyed Gaudi’s workshop and the plaster models he had created as a guide for his successors to complete the work.
Architect Lluis Bonet i Gar saved these fragments, and A. Gaudi’s models were carefully reassembled. Later, many technical details of how to implement his project were solved by the architect from New Zealand, Mark Burry.
St. The family church is considered one of the wonders of the modern world, but it wasn’t always that way. Salvador Dali described its “terrible beauty” and George Orwell considered it one of the most disgusting buildings in the world, commenting that the anarchists showed a lack of taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance.
Paid newspaper The Guardian inf.
2024-03-31 09:59:34