Gaudi’s Barcelona Catechism

In the latest issue of  Sacred Architecture , Pablo Alvarez Funes describes how the eccentric and controversial Sagrada Familia became a nation’s church:

The building of a church of this size could not be unconnected with controversy. In 1965 a manifesto against the continuation of construction works was signed and published by notable Modernist architects, artists, and writers including Le Corbusier, Josep Lluis Sert, Bruno Zevi, Joan Miro, Antoni Tapies, Ricardo Bofill, Camilo Jose Cela, Gil de Biedma, and Joseph Maria Subirachs. On the one hand, the signers argued against continuing construction on urban and aesthetic grounds derived from Modernism, and on the other, for leaving the building as it was at Gaudí’s death as a cenotaph for the architect. These objections dovetailed with general objections by the communist and atheist groups of Spain to the religious and decorative nature of such a prominent work. The most obvious effect of this letter was that one of the signees, Subirachs, eventually took part in the construction works, and made the controversially Modernist sculptures for the Passion façade.

Alvarez Funes goes on to lament the addition of the Passion facade (pictured above) which, he says, goes against Gaudí’s “artistic intent.”

I agree, but I’m not sure Gaudí would. He was an auteur who admired the artisan, a man of singular vision who was jealous of the anonymous craftsman’s ability to disappear behind his art. It is the mark of all the great cathedrals that they express more than the mind of any one man, and it is fitting that the Passion facade represents the humility both of Christ and of his servant and saint .