Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Sagrada Familia

Episode Date: November 9, 2020

Every year, more than three million visitors will line up and buy a ticket to visit the most popular attraction in all of Spain: The Sagrada Familia. It is a stunning modernist architectural achievement and the crowning design of local architect Antoni Gaudí. Even though it gets millions of visitors, the church has been under construction for almost 150 years and still isn’t finished. Learn more about the Sagrada Familia, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every year, more than 3 million visitors will line up and buy a ticket to the most popular attraction in all of Spain, the Sagrada Familia. It's a stunning modernist architectural achievement and the crowning design of local architect and Tony Gowdy. Even though it gets millions of visitors, the church has been under construction for almost 150 years and it still isn't finished. Learn more about the Basilica of the Holy Family, aka the Sagrada Familia, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by the tourist office of Spain. The Sagrada Familia is undoubtedly one of the architectural wonders of Spain, but it's far from being the only one. The Frank Gehry Design Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is a signature example of postmodern architecture. In Seville, you can find one of the largest cathedrals in the world.

In Granada, you can experience the masterpiece of Moorish Islamic Design at the El Ambra. In Merida, you can see ancient designs from the Roman Empire. And just a few blocks away from the Sagrada Familia, you can find the Ehrana. Art Nouveau Classic, the Hospital de Saint-Pau. Spain has architecture for every taste. You can start researching your dream trip to Spain today by visiting Spain. Info, where you can get everything you need to know to plan your Spanish adventure. The genesis of the Sagrada Familia dates back to 1872 with a bookkeeper named Yosef Maria Bocabella. He took a trip to Italy and became enamored with the Basilica of Loretto. He wanted Barcelona to have a great church too. He began

fundraising, and in 1882, construction began on the church with a design by architect Francisco de Pala de Villar. The original design was to be a neo-Gothic church pretty similar to what the vast majority of cathedrals in Europe look like. Only part of the crypt had been completed when in the next year DelVir quit the project. He had disagreements with Bocabella about the direction of the project and decided to quit rather than continue. Bocabella then offered the job to his advisor, Joanne Martyré, who declined. Martyré, however, recommended another look at a little bit of a local architect for the job named Antoni Gaudi. When Gowdy took over, the entire design of the church went in a totally different direction. Born in 1852, Gowdy was only 30 years old when he began

work on the church. Gaudi was a practitioner of a style known as modernizme, which was a unique catalan take on other modern art movements that were happening around Europe, such as Art Nouveau. While the modernizme was found in other arts such as painting and literature, its greatest manifestation was in architecture, and in particular, the architecture of Gaudi. Not only was the style modern, but it was a unique Catalan style that was highly intertwined with Catalan nationalism, which sought to place Catalan culture on a par with other great cultures in Europe. When you see the church, it clearly looks nothing like any other church in the world. There are design elements which can't be found in any other Gothic-style cathedral.

Yet, underneath those modern naturalistic elements, you can clearly see that the basic layout of the church is very traditional. The primary architectural element of the church are its spires. The design calls for 18 large spires. The number represents the 12 apostles, the four evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and the largest central spire represents Jesus Christ. The building will have three facades. The nativity facade faces east, the passion facade facing west, and the glory facade facing south. The nativity and passion facades have already been completed, and the final glory facade is scheduled for completion in the next few years. It will also be the largest facade in the building by a wide margin. Inside the church, the layout is a typical Latin cross with a main aisle and a

transept. The highest point inside is 75 meters or 246 feet under the asp. The columns inside are not like normal columns you see in most buildings. As they approach to the ceiling, they branch out like a tree, which is what they're intended to look like. When inside, the thing that struck me most was the color. Many churches of this size have stained glass windows, but the Sagrada Familia for some reason has a deeper color projected inside. Each section of the window has a particular color theme, with all the colors of the rainbow represented. If you're there at the right time of day, it's an amazing sight. There are smaller features of the building, which are also remarkable and not usually seen in large European cathedrals. The glory facade will have seven doors,

each door representing the seven sacraments. The Eucharist door is currently in place, and and it is a massive metal door with raised letters which contain the Lord's Prayer in Catalan. Just inside from the door is a stone monument with the Greek letters Alpha and Omega stylized in the stone. On the exterior wall near the Eucharist door is a four-by-four square filled with numbers. It's a cryptogram or magic square. All of the numbers in each row or column add up to 33, which is the age it's believed that Jesus died. In the 16-number grid, there are 310 different ways to add up to the number. number 33. There are two numbers in the magic square which are repeated, and those supposedly also

have significance in that they add up to 48. Over most crucifixes, you'll see the letters I-N-R-I, which in Latin stands for Jesus Nazarinos Rex Udiorum, or Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. If you take the position of each of the four letters in the Roman alphabet, they also add up to 48. There's one final remark I'll make about the design. If you visit the museum, which is at the end of the tour through the church, you'll find a model of the Sagrada Familia made out of string. What's interesting about it is that it's upside down. The model is made from string and small hanging weights. The string and the weights, through gravity, create optimally designed curves and arches. Gowdy would use a mirror or photos to view the model upside down to study it. I was blown away

the first time I saw the model because it makes the entire building make sense once you see how the spires and arches are all naturally occurring through gravity. The best known thing about the Sagrada Familia is probably the length of time it's taken to build it. Even when construction was first started, the building had developed a reputation for being built slowly. Gowdy eventually devoted his entire life to the project and ceased taking other architectural clients. When asked why construction was going so slow, he replied, My client is not in a hurry. And he's referring to God there. Gowdy died in 1926 at the age of but the lead architect for the building passed on from generation to generation.

At the time of Gaudi's death, the building was about 15 to 20% complete. The biggest interruption in construction occurred during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s when construction ceased for several years. Since then, construction has continued almost uninterrupted. The availability of modern construction equipment and computer modeling has hastened things considerably. The projective date of completion is now 2026, but with the recent pandemic, that may be put off to 2027. If it is completed by 2027, it will have taken longer to build than the Great Pyramid or the Great Wall of China. If you walk around the church, you'll notice

that there are major differences in the stone and the exterior of the building. The church has taken so long to build that you can see fresh stone, not too far from stone which might have been laid over 100 years ago and has been weathered. The Sagrada Familia is not technically a cathedral. A cathedral is a church which is the seat of a bishop. Likewise, St. Peter in Rome is also not a cathedral. The church was declared a minor basilica in 2010 by Pope Benedict the 16th. Another interesting fact about the church is that for over 130 years, the church never had a building permit. In 2018, after 136 years of construction, the church paid 36 million euro to the city of Barcelona for a building permit. Most of the money will be directed to improving public

access to the church in the Barcelona metro. Funding for the church, ever since its inception has come from private sources. The governments of Barcelona, Catalonia, and Spain have never provided anything for its construction. Likewise, the Catholic Church and the Diocese of Barcelona have never provided funding either. Today, all funding for the church comes from donations and ticket sales. The estimated annual cost of construction is around 30 million euro. If you visit Barcelona, you certainly have to pay a visit to the Sagrada Familia. Yes, it's a very popular and crowded attraction, but it's popular for a reason. I would recommend going in the very early morning or in the late afternoon, so you can experience the best light. At some point,

not too soon, the Sagrada Familia will be complete. That means if you want to say that you've witnessed the 150-year project while it was under construction, you only have about six years left. Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James Macalah. Please remember to support the show over at patreon.com, where you can get exclusive merchandise, and to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Leave a five-star review to have your review read online.