To loud cheers, a more than five-ton Christmas star was lit up on the Sagrada Familia this week. It’s another sign that the construction of the world-famous masterpiece by architect Antoni Gaudí is making real progress.
Most Barcelona residents, who grew up with the basilica under construction, are eagerly awaiting it.
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Huge main entrance
But that is not the case for Salvador Barosso and a few thousand other residents. For thirty years, Barosso has lived right next to the Sagrada Familia. From his balcony he can almost touch the immense structure. But now that the work is entering the final phase, and the colossus must be finished within ten years, he is not sure whether he can continue to live here in the future.
“Now they want to build a large staircase in front of the main entrance. If that happens, three thousand local residents, including myself, will be on the street,” says Barosso on the phone. The planned main entrance to the Sagrada Familia goes right through two large blocks of houses full of shops and homes.
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Built among grazing goats
Whether that will continue and what should happen to the residents is completely unclear, according to Barosso. In his own words, he represents ninety percent of concerned residents whose house is on the slope with a residents’ association. “The municipality and the Sagrada Familia are in silence. We have gone to court.”
When the construction of the Sagrada Familia started in 1883 under Gaudí, Barcelona was not yet the metropolis it is today. In fact, the foundation stones of the basilica were laid between grazing goats. Meanwhile, Barcelona – the second largest city in Spain with 1.6 million inhabitants – has grown out of its seams; the Sagrada is surrounded by large housing blocks.
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Gaudí would turn in the grave
Not only Barcelona, the building plans of the Sagrada Familia have often changed in almost a century and a half of construction. Because Gaudí had no written plan for the basilica, a lively discussion rages between supporters and opponents whether the Sagrada Familia has become as the architect once envisioned.
For example, Barosso finds the enormous Christmas star, like the rest of the construction, terrible: “It looks like a festive cake. The figures on the church seem to come straight from Star Wars. If Gaudí were to come back to life, he would die if he saw this,” says Barosso. “The main entrance is also not as Gaudí would have liked it”.
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Million dollar company
Despite the criticism, the Sagrada Familia is one of Spain’s main tourist attractions. And that makes millions.
Before the corona pandemic, thousands of visitors paid 15 euros a day for a ticket to access the world-famous basilica. That yielded the Sagrada in 2019 another 100 million euros.
But in the corona year 2020, only 12,000 visitors came to the sanctuary. And even though the basilica has reopened its doors to the public since the end of May, the losses run into tens of millions this year.
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tourists
It is therefore no coincidence that the Christmas star on the Sagrada Familia was lit with a lot of drums this week, thinks Joan Itxaso, the president of another residents’ association. “They are trying to attract more tourists with this, while we only want less,” he says.
Itxaso hopes that after the pandemic it will never be as busy as before around the Sagrada. He also wants the plans for the main entrance to be scrapped. If it does come, Barosso and other local residents may be willing to leave if there is a good compensation scheme. But the vagueness of the plans now is maddening for Itxaso and Barosso.
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