The Sagrada Família: perceptions of unfinished work

This work seeks to identify and analyse the principal perceptions created by society towards the expiatory church of the Sagrada Familia and the meanings that are derived from this. With this aim, I will be studying how the status of Gaudí’s unfinished work affects matters through the various analyses conducted into the perceptions drawn that characterise the Sagrada Familia. It will show that the three spheres – religious, monumental, symbol/brand – are subsidiary to a single concept, the concept of unfinished. This term has been key in clarifying the relationship that exists between each of the different perceptions: religious, monumental and symbolic. Without the consideration of this factor, the spheres defined would not have generated a common field and, therefore, we could not start from an established collective point in order to conduct the analysis of the work. The base that supports all of the analysis is the concept of unfinished.

Art Nouveau was an artistic and architectural movement that began in Europe and that had great relevance in Catalonia with Catalan Modernism, with a numerous group of creators such as Puig i Cadafalch, Domènech i Montaner and Lluís Muncunill. One of the most acclaimed in this movement was Antoni Gaudí, who has earned huge recognition over the years not only nationally but also internationally. Gaudí’s masterpiece is the expiatory church of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. This church has gained great importance and recognition over time, not only because of its religious aspect, but also for its architectural splendour, the transformation into an icon of the city of Barcelona and the non-completion of its construction.

The motivation of this work arose from the observation of the great lack of knowledge that society has of the symbology that surrounds the Sagrada Familia, both the religious sphere and in the architectural and symbolic. It aims to offer a better understanding of this symbology that the creator wanted to convey, while highlighting the symbolism sought to be conveyed from inside compared with the direct perception of the visitors. Specifically, this latter issue will be tackled on the basis of an analysis conducted on a collection of posters that the Sagrada Familia Construction Committee has shown every year, since 1955, with the aim of raising funds to finance its construction.

It is important to state that the church is in a process of continuity that will end in 2026, as this fact poses the following question: what will happen to the expiatory church of the Sagrada Familia once it has been finished? How will this change affect the church’s revenue? Will it be visited with the same rate as today?

It is a work that has always been viewed through scaffolding, with builders working on it and cranes carrying immense pieces of stone and lifting sculptures to great heights. The idea of considering the finished church leads us to look at social reaction and interest, so important at present that it enables its continuation. Today, the church also receives visits by people who already know it, but who come back because the construction is advancing and there are always new things to discover and admire. When the church is finished, all these people who have a deep knowledge of the work and the sense of its symbols will probably no longer feel this need to continue to come to observe it and they will possibly lose interest. Despite being finished, the church will continue to need revenue due to the wear and tear and the ageing of the material and the construction, which will have to be restored and on which repairs and maintenance will have to be carried out.

The method employed is primarily documentary analysis, based on research at the Historical Archive of the Sagrada Familia of articles, written documents and critiques made of the church. This bibliographical research has enabled a better knowledge of all of the significance surrounding the work, both at a historiographical level since Gaudí began it in 1883 and at a design and meaning.