Living in front of the main gate of a monument like the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona must be (or will be) a luxury. Not only because you can enjoy one of the most important architectural works of our time, but also because that apartment has an incalculable value. The problem is that if you live there, you may end up homeless.

The reason: A magnificent and ornate staircase to enter the basilica, which would be the icing on the cake of the Sagrada Familia and the pinnacle of Gaudí’s pharaonic work. And the nearby houses are just in the way.

Victory’s frontWork on the Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia Temple began in 1882. It was the work of Gaudí, who, like many architects and cathedral designers, died before seeing his finished work. It is the most visited church in Europe after St. Peter’s in the Vatican, and still has room to shine.

Gaudí dedicated the last 11 years of his life to his masterpiece, the pinnacle of Catalan modernist architecture; the Gloria façade is the most monumental and ornate façade in the entire basilica. This is not surprising, as it was the main door of the temple and Gaudí wanted the approach to the portico to be a life-giving experience.

Stairs. The architect designed a huge staircase to reach the Victory Porch, which would represent the path to salvation from Hell after atoning for one’s sins. Literally, wow, as it would start as a tunnel, and the idea was that it would have different representations of evil, as well as purgatory and other visions that would show how we can achieve salvation and victory through work.

It sounds magnificent, but the problem is that when Gaudí designed all this, there was nothing around the cathedral. Now we have two squares to the east and west, but there are two blocks of buildings right where the grand staircase would be. And the goal is actually to build the staircase.

These buildings are annoying. In the architect’s original plans, the Sagrada Familia was in the center of a kind of star. It was accessible from several points, and the idea was to be perfectly and completely visible from any point. That’s not possible now. So if you’re just below, you see everything, yes, but there are buildings in the porch and the altar area. From the narrow Font passage, we can only see part of the main facade of the temple.

The Barcelona City Council has long known that this is a problem that must be solved sooner or later, and has even put a warning on the table. In this context, they have committed to examining the solutions necessary to complete the project and to modify both the Special Comprehensive Urban Plan and the General Metropolitan Plan. However, they have also stated that the construction of the staircase will involve “the expropriation of a large number of houses and properties”, so the right to housing must be guaranteed.

In red, the original plan. In blue, the next plan

1976 Metropolitan Plan. And the problem is precisely that there was no agreement. In the 1976 PGM, the city set aside a two-block walkway from Diagonal to be able to open up a street where Gaudí’s grand staircase would one day be located. It was like setting aside land so that they could build the staircase without disturbing anyone, but the problem was that the whole area was urbanized and now there are apartment blocks and shops.

Wait… how? Businessman Josep Lluís Núñez (also former president of FC Barcelona) perhaps saw the business opportunity and began building in the area in 1975, a few months before the PGM of 1976. Did the neighbors buy their houses at lower prices, knowing that sooner or later they would be demolished? It is an insinuation that has emerged from time to time, but in the statements made to Diari de Barcelona, ​​the neighbors were not aware of this.

“The myth that these apartments were sold at a lower price is false,” says a neighbor. They also said that the amount of money was quite high and that they had no evidence that an expropriation would be carried out later. Gabriel Mercadal (president of the Sagrada Familia Neighborhood Association) said that after a few meetings everything stopped.

Hell’s Gate for Neighbors. Over the years, the city has offered various solutions to both the affected residents and the Sagrada Família construction group Junta Constructora. Initially, a width of 60 meters would have been needed to build the staircase, which would have led to the practical demolition of two blocks between Mallorca and Calle Aragón. A later plan reduced the figure to 40 meters wide and before it reached Calle Aragón; this would have allowed the ancillary properties not to be demolished, and the moves were estimated to be only around 200, not the 1,020 that would have occurred in the PGM of 1976.

In another proposal, it seems that an agreement has been reached to build an underground parking lot for buses, which would solve one of the neighborhoods’ complaints.

Dialogue. In any case, this is a long-standing problem. Already in 2013, the board put 30 million euros on the table to cover the expropriations, but the City Council rejected it. After a long period of pending dispute, all parties met on May 23 to negotiate the fundamental aspects of this mega project, such as the relocation of families to homes in the area.

Mercadal argues that “if an urban planning solution involves forced expropriation, its beneficiary must face it” – in this case, the temple itself. There is also always uncertainty about what possible agreements will be reached in the event of a change in city governance.

There is no doubt that this is a very complex thing indeed, but given the current plans to finish the basilica in the next decade, it is a conflict that is close to being over.

Images | Barcelona City Council, via La Razón, Canaan

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