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Is the largest crane in Europe in Barcelona? This is the question posed to us by this photograph in La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos, which gives us a perspective of Barcelona marked by the silhouette of the Sagrada Familia.
But, what really catches our attention is the immense crane that rises above Gaudí’s famous work. And the construction works of the Sagrada Familia have challenged the techniques of working at height.
As detailed by the Sagrada Familia in its blog, “the main crane” used in the works is “the mother of all cranes.” In 2012, this gigantic tool, purchased in France, was acquired and installed on the transept of the Basilica – at level 67 -.
Its metal arm is capable of covering “almost the entire diameter of the temple, it has the capacity to lift up to 24 tons of load and can reach 180 meters in height.”
It is a crane equipped with the latest technology and incorporates a camera that controls to the millimeter the difficult movements that must be made between the towers.
In order to build the towers of the evangelists, the tower of Our Lady and the sacristy, it was raised to 141 meters above street level. In addition, it was raised to its maximum exponent, at 180 meters high, for the largest tower, that of Jesus Christ, at 172.5 meters high.
When fully stretched, the crane arm surpasses the Montjuïc mountain—177.72 meters high—although the towers “will never surpass it, this measurement, since Gaudí did not want a work carried out by the “Man will never surpass a work done by God.”
This crane is unique in Barcelona and at the time of its purchase there were only 15 in the world. It is for this reason, because of its size and because its arm can encompass the other smaller operating cranes, that it has been baptized as “the mother of all cranes.”
