Designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Barcelona. It was consecrated on 7 November 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI
Construction started on 19 March 1882 under the direction of architect Francisco de Paula del Villar who resigned the commission in 1883 with Gaudi taking over as Chief Architect. Gaudi devoted his life to the project and, when he died in 1926 less than a quarter of the project was complete
Gaudi transformed the design of the building with an architectural and engineering style that combined Gothic and Art Nouveau
Construction has progressed slowly and intermittently, interupted by Civil War and, in 1936, the loss of Gaudi’s drawings and plaster models in a fire set by revolutionaries. Sixteen years were spent re-assembling the plaster models from fragments.
La Sagrada remains under construction and, in October 2015, Chief A
