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Sagrada Familia books

Languages:
- Spanish
- English
- French
- Italian
- German
- Catalan
Deluxe Edition
The Basilica of the Sagrada Familia
The most important work of architect Antoni Gaudí

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$31.15
(18)
Languages:
- Spanish
- English
- French
- Italian
- German
Visual Edition
The basilica of Sagrada Familia
A temple converted into a universal work of art

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$19.31
(11)
Visual Edition
Expiatory temple of la Sagrada Familia
Antoni Gaudi's major work shown in detail section by section

$17.49
Deluxe Edition
Basílica of the Sagrada Familia

$29.19
Languages:
- Spanish
- English
- French
- Catalan
- Italian
- German
Visual Edition
Nina, Sam, mou and Antoni Gaudí present
A detective story which explores the work of this great architect

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$13.98
Languages:
- Spanish
- English
- French
- Italian
- German
- Japanese
- Chinese
- Catalan
Visual Edition
Antoni Gaudí
The life of a genius

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$17.48
Languages:
- Spanish
- English
- French
- Italian
- German
- Catalan
Photo Edition
The Basílica of the Sagrada Familia
Antoni Gaudí’s most important creation

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$19.31
(8)
Languages:
- Spanish
- English
- French
- Italian
- German
- Japanese
- Russian
- Chinese
- Catalan
- Portuguese
- Korean
Pocket Edition
Sagrada Familia
History, art, architecture

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$11.65

Sagrada Familia books

A universal icon of the city of Barcelona, the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia is the most important and ambitious work of Antoni Gaudí, considered one of the major exponents of Catalan modernist architecture. Well-versed in religious themes, Gaudí devoted 43 years of his life to the construction of the temple, which was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2005 due to its great artistic and symbolic value.

These books on Sagrada Familia approach the temple designed by Gaudí from a new perspective, a landmark in the history of architecture that is admired throughout the world. Dosde's works unveil the origin and the significance of this monumental architectural ensemble, where each element obeys a complex framework.

Gaudí's masterpiece

With the Sagrada Familia, Gaudí set about overcoming the limitations of the gothic style in order to create the perfect temple, incorporating revolutionary architectonic solutions to the building that were inspired by nature. Devised as a symbol link between heaven and earth, the temple would finish up reuniting all the structural solutions that the architect of the Sagrada Familia had developed throughout his long career.

The history of the temple

Just as explained in the books on Gaudí's Sagrada Familia published by Dosde, in 1882, when construction work commenced on Sagrada Familia, the temple's architect was Francisco de Paula del Villar, who designed a neo-Gothic style building in line with historicist trends of the period. One year after work started on the temple, with the arrival of Gaudí, the project changed completely and the Sagrada Familia had a complete change in direction..

Instead of following the role of his predecessor, Gaudí proposed creating an enormous building on a latin cross ground plan with 5 naves. The temple designed by the architect was crowned by 12 belltowers and six cimborrios, the largest of which reached 172.50 metres high, and communicated with the exterior by means of three façades of allegorical character: the Nativity and the Passion, located on either sides of the transept, and the Glory, the largest and most monumental of the ensemble, located at the start of the naves.

With its revolutionary design, Gaudí intended to make Sagrada Familia a link between heaven and earth, whilst recuperating the verticality of the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages. In accordance with the architect's plans, the temple had to soar higher than all other civil constructions in Barcelona, but at the same time could not compete with God's own work. Thus, Gaudí made sure that the highest cimborrio, dedicated to Jesus Christ, did not exceed the height of the Barcelonan mountain, Montjuïc. This is just one of the many fascinating facts about the Sagrada Familia.

Gaudí didn't get to see Sagrada Familia finished as he died in 1926, when he had only managed to construct one of the façades, but he trusted that his ideas would guide those who would continue with the project. In fact, the actual architect assured during his lifetime that he was conscious that his project would take generations to complete, and saw the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia as a continuation of the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages, collective works which, owing to their enormous complexity, often took longer than a century to build.

The symbolism of the Sagrada Familia

Inseparable from the figure of Gaudí, the history of the Sagrada Familia is about Christianity, given that the architect envisaged the temple as an enormous stone bible. In fact, just as Dosde's books on the Sagrada Familia explain, each façade of the Sagrada Familia is dedicated to the most significant periods of Jesus Christ's life: the Nativity, the Passion and the Glory. As for the Sagrada Familia's interior, it is devoted to the exaltation of the Universal Church. Likewise, the columns of the Sagrada Familia generate an atmosphere that is ideal for withdrawal and meditation, converting the temple into a great mystical forest.

This complex symbolic program, which is explained in Dosde's books on Sagrada Familia, reveal the sound religious knowledge acquired by Gaudí, who, motivated by his desire for perfection, became an expert in liturgical themes as time went on. Subsequently, the architect managed to carry out what his predecessors hadn't: to design a perfect temple, totally adapted to the needs of worship, in which architectonic and sculptural elements joined together in order to convey the religious message.