12 fascinating facts about Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
Posted by staff / June 5, 2017
Gaudi’s whimsical cathedral of dreams, Sagrada Familia, is one piece of architecture that’s truly unforgettable.
Love it or hate it, it’s Barcelona’s star attraction, one that’s been 135 years in the making.
Learn more about this fascinating structure with these twelve facts from My Modern Met.
It all started with a bookseller.
What would turn out to be Gaudí’s masterpiece started due to a bookseller’s trip to the Vatican. Josep Maria Bocabella visited Italy in 1872 and returned feeling inspired to build a church similar to one he’d seen there. Funded by private donations, construction started ten years later, in 1882.
Gaudí was not originally involved in the project.
The original architect, Francisco Paula del Villar, planned on creating a standard Gothic revival church. When he resigned one year into the project, after the apse crypt was complete, Gaudí took over, radically changing the plans.
Full story at My Modern Met.
Comments are off for this post.