The Gloria façade of the Sagrada Família temple, the main and most majestic one, the one that faces Mallorca Street, will be a synthesis of all Christian theology and will represent the life beyond death, according to the mentality of its author, the architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926).
Heaven, purgatory and hell and other basic elements of Christian doctrine such as the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the seven deadly sins in contrast to the seven virtues, the beatitudes or the sacraments will be reflected.
The theologian and philosopher Francesc Torralba explains that Gaudí conceived this part of the temple by answering two basic questions: what can I expect after death? And how should I live to achieve glory and happiness?
In 2017, Torralba participated in an interdisciplinary commission made up of architects and theologians, promoted by the Cardinal Archbishop of Barcelona, ??Juan José Omella, whose objective was to define what this façade was going to be like, the only one of the expiatory temple that remains to be built.
The starting point was the four albums of the temple, the first three, written during Gaudí’s lifetime by his secretary, and the last, dating from 1929, by his disciples based on the conversations they had with the genius. They describe this part of the temple, its purpose and the sculptural groups that should be present.
The result was a study with several conclusions, which Torralba has deepened in his doctoral thesis La façana de la Glòria de la Sagrada Família. Spiritual and theological sources of the eschatology of Antoni Gaudí (Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià), a document of more than 800 pages in which he analyzes the symbols and parts of the facade as well as the sources that inspired Gaudí in the ideation of this part of the basilica.
For Torralba, the main source of inspiration for the Gloria façade is a catechism by the Archbishop of Tarragona Josep Domènec Costa i Borràs (1805-1865), the Catechism of Christian Doctrine (1853), which is what Gaudí learned when he was a child. “That background inspires him deeply, he integrates it into his memory and expresses it in stone on the façade,” says the scholar and doctor in Theology.
The façade of Glòria will be divided into three levels: heaven, purgatory and hell, with heaven occupying more than half of the space. “It should be a party, with bodies that laugh and hug, a kind of banquet, with many figures that will represent the full life and abundance that is heaven,” says Torralba, explaining that, unlike Dante’s Divine Comedy, , Gaudí did not write down which characters with names and surnames there should be in each of these three stages. “The Virgin, saints, apostles, all those who lived according to the values ??of the Gospel are supposed to be there,” he explains.
In an intermediate stage, purgatory will be reflected, the souls that must cleanse impurities to access eternal life. Hell, which will be located below the esplanade of Mallorca Street, will be visible through skylights and will show deformed and monstrous figures that will evoke the loss of human dignity.
Torralba affirms that this façade must answer the question to everyone who gathers in front of it: what should I do to deserve glory? For this reason, “in it Gaudí displays all the catechetical pedagogy,” he affirms. There will be a description of the seven works of mercy (feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the sick, clothing the naked, lodging the pilgrim, redeeming the captive, and burying the dead).
A number 7 that will have prominence. At the base of the seven columns of this façade the seven capital sins (anger, pride, avarice, lust, gluttony, envy and laziness) will also appear, in contrast to the seven virtues (humility, generosity, patience, temperance, chastity, charity , diligence) that will be at the top.
And in each of the seven access doors to the façade, a sacrament will be represented (baptism, confirmation, penance, Eucharist, sacred orders, marriage, extreme unction) and the seven requests that appear in the Lord’s Prayer “remembering whom enter the temple that prayer is the way to eternal happiness.” There will be more than a hundred sculptural groups, but also lyrics. At the top the Creed will appear in Latin.
In the central part of the façade there will also be a representation of work with Saint Joseph and Jesus working as carpenters and, to the right and left, the representation of two other trades, one related to water and the other to fire. The message is that “work is also the path to happiness,” says Torralba.
The artists who are commissioned to shape the sculptural ensemble of this part of the temple must capture this entire Gaudinian universe. And they will probably have the added pressure of making a façade that lives up to the other two, that of the Nativity and that of the Passion, a UNESCO world heritage site.
