Church (Crypt)

Gaudí's crypt lies on the ground floor of a church that was never finally built. The architect was taken off the project in 1914. It is nonetheless considered the master architect's most important work. Gaudí enjoyed complete freedom on the project, with a protracted pace of construction because of its experimental nature. He tried out a number of architectural solutions here which were subsequently applied to the Sagrada Família.

After Gaudí's departure, between 1915 and 1916 it was completed with the essential architectural input to allow it to open as a place of worship, consecrated as a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The polyfunicular model devised by the architect for the dimensional calculations and structural design was abandoned in the workshop alongside the construction site, demolished in 1936. Following several interventions in the 1960s, in 1999 the church was restored by the Barcelona Provincial Authority Local Architectural Heritage Service, with the aim of discontinuing the original work, restoring the existing structures and dismantling those additions not designed by Gaudí. In 2005, UNESCO included the church on the list of monuments classified as World Heritage, by extending the serial property "Works of Antoni Gaudí".

After the Civil War, the architect Josep Maria Jujol built the altars of the Sagrada Família and the main altar, transformed by the new liturgy of the 2nd Vatican Council. The altar of Our Lady of Montserrat was designed by the architect Isidre Puig Boada, of the Gaudí school.

Author of the text: Josep Padró i Margó, local historian.