Sacred Family

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Of course, this meant that there was no question of getting it built quickly, although Gaudí had originally forecast between ten and fifteen years; there were also financial limitations, as the cost was to be met solely from alms and public subscription. As a result the "Church of the Poor", the main work by the most important Catalan architect of modern times, remains just a shell, and nobody knows whether and when it will ever be completed.

The church is planned to have a total length of 110m/354ft and a height of 45m/148ft, with a principal dome of 160m/525ft and towers up to 115m/378ft. So far, however, only the four- towered east doorway (the "Nativity Front"), the outer walls of the apse, the crypt in which Antoni Gaudí was buried in 1926 (not open to the public), parts of the west doorway (the "Passion Doorway") and the nave walls have been built.

From an artistic point of view the Templo de la Sagrada Família is an extremely unconventional mixture of established styles and new ideas. The ground- plan, the way the area is divided up and the firm lines strongly reflect Gothic and mid-19th C. Neo-Gothic, but are combined with the flowing, herbaceous ornamentation so typical of the Art Nouveau style.