The Sagrada Família
Subtitle: the astonishing story of Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece
By: Gijs van Hensbergen
Edition: First U.S. edition.
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 204
ISBN-13: 9781408854778; 9781632867810
Subjects: Sagrada Família (Church : Barcelona, Spain); Basilicas
Work titles: Sagrada Família
Description: Its scaffolding-cloaked spires reach up to the heavens, dominating the Barcelona skyline and drawing in millions of visitors every year. What seduces our attention is perhaps a combination: not only its almost megalomaniac ambition and architectural extravagance but the sheer longevity of its construction. Its creator, Antoni Gaudi, 'God's Architect', saw the first stone laid on 19 March 1882 and yet it is unlikely to be completed until 2026 at the very earliest. It has survived two World Wars, the ravages of the Spanish Civil War and the 'Hunger Years' of Franco's rule. It has defied the critics, the penny-pinching accountants, the conservative town-planners and the slaves to sterile modernism to witness the most momentous changes in society and history. 'The Sagrada Familia' explores the evolution of this remarkable building, working through the decades right up to the present day before looking beyond to the final stretch of its construction. It is at once a guidebook and a chronological history, and a moving and compelling study of man's aspiration towards the divine. Rich in detail, vast in scope, this is a revelatory and authoritative study of a building and its place in history and the genius that created it.
Notes: Includes index.

Translation of: La Sagrada Família.

English edition originally published in Great Britain by Bloomsbury in 2017.

Translated from the Spanish.