| The monumental church El Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada
Família (Expiatory Temple of the Sacred Family) is Gaudí's most famous
work, the finest example of his visionary genius, and a world-wide symbol
of Barcelona. The architect undertook the task in 1883 on the site of
a previous neo-Gothic project begun in 1882 by F. del Villar.
Gaudi dedicated his life, in his later years to the exclusion of all
else, to carrying out this ambitious undertaking which due to his sudden
death was left unfinished.
Gaudí wanted to create a "20th century cathedral", a synthesis of
all his architectural knowledge with a complex system of symbolisms
and a visual explication of the mysteries of faith. There would be facades
representing the birth,death, and resurrection of Christ with eighteen
towers symbolizing the twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, and the
Virgin Mary and Christ. This latter, the tallest, would stand 170 meters
high. The church was based on the plan of a Gothic basilica with five
naves, a transept, an apse, and ambulatory. Gaudí planned monumental
facades on the central nave and the arms of the transept. He wanted
to give the edifice a spectacular vertical dimension by way of an effusion
of pinnacles and high, spiral-shaped towers which would be covered in
abstract patterns of Venetian glass mosaic crowned by Episcopalian symbols
and the cross.
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