FOUR and a half million people visit it each year — and it’s not even finished yet. The Basílica de la Sagrada Família, in Barcelona, is apparently the most popular attraction in Spain. It is one of those buildings (and there are surprisingly few) that truly deserve to be called iconic. Instantly recognisable, with its crazy sculpture and distinctive towers, it looked to the writer Robert Hughes like something shaped out of “melted candle wax and chicken guts”.
Given the popularity of the Sagrada Família, as well other projects of its architect, Antonio Gaudí, it is scarcely surprising that he has been the subject of numerous studies. A new biography seems to appear almost annually, and the contours of his life are pretty well established. Born into a respectable, rural family in 1852, he had an unspectacular childhood and yet eventually managed to enter architecture school. On his graduation, the dean observed: “We have given this academic title to either a fool or a genius. Time will show.” The people of Barcelona never quite made up their mind, but a succession of enlightened patrons allowed him to experiment with style and form, producing buildings that seemed more like sculpture than architecture.
Along the way, he became steadily more religious and (perhaps) saintly. A dandy in his youth, Gaudí was famously shabby by middle age. In 1894, he nearly starved himself to death with his Lenten disciplines and, even after that, seems to have subsisted on a diet of prayer and raisins. Increasingly, he devoted himself to what seemed a quixotic project: the creation of a new cathedral. Like the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, the Sagrada Família was intended as an act of expiation, drawing a dangerously secular society back to Mother Church. Gaudí intended it to be so attractive that it would prove irresistible to the dissatisfied, radicalised poor of the city.
His only obstacle was a catastrophic lack of funds. Initially a private initiative, the cathedral was grudgingly adopted by the diocese, but was never any bishop’s top priority. Gaudí worked for more than 40 years on the Sagrada Família without getting anywhere close to completion. “God is my client,” Gaudí once observed, “and he is in no hurry.” If only the same were true of the architect. Rushing to cross a street in 1926, he was mown down by a tram. So dishevelled was his appearance that rescuers assumed that he was a beggar and took to him to die in a hospital for paupers. The cathedral is currently expected to reach completion in 2035.
A gifted writer, Peter Stanford retells this story with real sympathy. As much travel guide as biography, his book is not based on any startling new discoveries. Whether fool, genius, or saint, Gaudí ultimately remains as much of an enigma as his buildings. But it is hard not to be beguiled by Stanford’s genuine enthusiasm, as he recounts a kind of pilgrimage, project by project. Anyone who plans a similar trip should pack this handsome volume.
The Revd Dr William Whyte is a Fellow and Tutor of St John’s College, Oxford, and Professor of Social and Architectural History in the University of Oxford.
Gaudí: God’s architect
Peter Stanford
Hodder & Stoughton £30
(978-1-3998-1181-1)
Church Times Bookshop £24
Listen to an interview with Peter Stanford on the Church Times Podcast here