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La Sagrada Familia ; temple of the holy family. This masterpiece has been designed by Antonio Gaudi , who has worked on it for over 40 years of his life. He devoted the last 15 years to building this church. Construction began in 1882 and is still to be finished.
The Sagrada Familia is being built for the people, not for the government or a single director, for all the people.
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On the subject of the extremely long construction time Gaudi answered: My client is not in a hurry .
After Gaudi´s dead a number of great architects have been working on the church. Some original designs have been destroyed by Spanish anarchists during the civil war in 1936. The architects are doing everything they can to build the church the way Gaudi would have done it.
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Apart from the unique design and great detail, the most famous part of the Sagrada Familia will probably be the towers. A total of 18 towers will be build, all representing someone. The twelve apostles will be the lowest towers, followed by four towers for the evangelists, the virgin Maria and the tallest of all; Jesus Christ. The highest tower will be 170 meters, 1 meter less than the mountain Montjuic as Gaudi believed that his work should not pass that of God himself.
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Another famous piece of art is the great entry doors of the passion fa The door shows words from the bible in different languages including Catalan. Antonio Gaudi designed an incredible amount of details, which makes you want to study every part of the church. When the design was finished, at the end of the 19 th century, constructors estimate the construction time at hundreds of years.
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Due to the development of building techniques they are trying to finish the Sagrada Familia Barcelona in 2026. This will be 100 th anniversary of Gaudi´s death.
Funding
The beauty of the church is not only visual. The directors, in charge of the construction, never accepted any money from the Spanish government. In the past the only funding they had were gifts from the people of Catalonia. Nowadays most of the money is raised by the entrance fee that visitors pay. But still that would not be enough to continue the construction, there are still friends of the church that donate money for the construction. This way there are families in Catalonia that donated thousands of euros to the church in the past century.
Especially during the Spanish civil war the construction had to stop because they ran out of money. The Spanish government offered help and money. But the directors honoured Gaudi´s ideas and never accepted anything.
Opening hours and entrance fee
Address: Calle Mallorca 401, 08034, Barcelona
Opening hours 09:00-18:00 (Oct-Mar) 09:00-20:00 (Apr-Sep)
Admission : 10 Euros
The Sagrada Familia is accessible for wheelchairs.
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