{"id":9380,"date":"2026-06-09T10:25:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=9380"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:15:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:15:44","slug":"the-sagrada-familia-was-so-ahead-of-its-time-it-was-almost-clairvoyant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2026\/06\/09\/the-sagrada-familia-was-so-ahead-of-its-time-it-was-almost-clairvoyant\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sagrada Familia was so ahead of its time it was “almost clairvoyant”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A century after the death of Antoni Gaud\u00ed<\/a>, the central tower of the Sagrada Familia<\/a> will be inaugurated by Pope Leo XIV tomorrow. For our Gaud\u00ed Centenary<\/a> series we look at the mastery of the algorithmic design behind it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia is the project that consumed Catalonia’s greatest architect for most of his life.<\/p>\n

Gaud\u00ed worked on the church for 44 years, starting at just 31 years old and stopping only when he was hit by a tram a few weeks shy of his 74th birthday. By this point he was living in his workshop and sleeping under his desk at the church.<\/p>\n

His unfinished masterpiece went on to outlive him, becoming the longest-running active construction project in the world, carried on by seven generations of chief architects.<\/p>\n

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The Sagrada Familia is nearing completion after 144 years. Photo courtesy of Sagrada Familia Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the Sagrada’s cornerstone was laid, humanity has fought two world wars, invented aeroplanes and computers, and put people on the moon.<\/p>\n

Coming into the world at a time of such supersonic social and political change, perhaps it was inevitable for the church to become an ideological linchpin, variously lauded and decried over the years as “genius or folly<\/a>“, “masterpiece or kitsch<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

The one fact that can’t be contested is that, in the words of architecture critic Rainer Zerbst<\/a>, “it is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art”.<\/p>\n