CONSTRUCTION OF THE CRYPT AND THE APSE, THE NATIVITY AND PASSION FAADES The crypt

The crypt is about nine metres underground; it was excavated with just two tools: pick and shovel.The foundations and the interior of walls and vaults were made of masonry the most common construction system at the end of the 19th century, consisting of a mixture of chipped or semi-chipped stones, limestone mortar and sand. The exposed stone elements, such as columns, capitals, arches or vaults, are carved in the workshop and later put in place.

Detail of an element done with the masonry technique.

Crane used to lift the different stone elements

7. CLAW CHISEL: Serrated chisel used for marking (skirting the perimeter of the stone to mark out the central surface to be textured). This serrated tool can have a variable number of teeth according to the finishes and the textures to be obtained. 8. PUNCH: Tool for smoothing or planing the irregularities of the stone, also used for texturing. 9. SCUTCH CHISEL: Tool used for stippling. 10. FLAT CHISEL: Tool used for marking and straightening ornamentation. 11. FOLDING WEDGE: Type of wedge placed with other kinds for breaking the stone. 12. WEDGE: Iron element placed strategically in a groove made by the dressing axe for breaking the stone.

13. RULER: instrument for measuring, also used for establishing and checking whether the faces of the stones are straight. In order to carve, work and make different finishes for the stone, a large number of tools were used; some of them are: 1. HAMMER: Heavy tool for breaking the stone by striking the wedges. 2. SCRIBER: Tool, generally made of wood, used for establishing a parallel or concentric between straight or curved faces. 3. COMPASS: Tool used for drawing circumferences. 4. STONEMASONS HAMMER: Tool with a wooden handle in the shape of a hammer with spikes at the ends. It was used for ornamenting and smoothing the exposed faces. 5. SCULPTORS MALLET: Tool with an iron head for striking the chisel. 6. SET SQUARE: Tool used for putting the faces of a piece at 90 and establishing their perpendicularity. 14. Apse faade 14. DRESSING AXE: Tool with a wooden handle, similar to a pick, with two spikes at the end. It was used for rough hewing and opening for wedges, also for pointed finishes.

This was the first element to be constructed with a certain slenderness and so the scaffolding was enormous. It was while dismantling this scaffolding that the first death occurred on the construction of the expiatory church of La Sagrada Famlia.

Apse faade

From those 45 m, and as far up as the pinnacles, the towers were built using scaffolding situated between the central towers, which rose with them. At the same time, radial beams cartwheels were mounted on the towers, and above that wooden structure vertical uprights were placed, with St Andrews crosses, to make the structure rigid, which also rose with the towers and so on successively as far as the pinnacles.

Detail of the sca olding

This was built with the late 19th century system used for making foundations that had to bear heavy loads. It consisted of placing large prismatic ashlars whose faces had the largest possible number of planes, some on top of the others, with no mortar. The final shape of the whole foundation was pyramidal to distribute the large occasional loads over a large part of the surface area of the ground.

The Nativity faade The foundation

The pinnacles
The pinnacles were made from the last cartwheel support and are composed of prefabricated elements made on site; the trencadis was placed before filling the moulds with mortar, and later they were raised to their proper place. For many years it was believed that Gaud had only used limestone masonry, but in 1997 a series of studies were made of the different materials and they were seen to have been made with lightly reinforced concrete.

Construction of the different levels of the towers

The 45 m were built with scaffolding mounted from the ground.

Movement of the materials on site

All materials were moved, basically from the stonemasons workshop to the site, by a system of rails with small wagons, which carried ashlars, slabs or pieces of sculpture. This system was also used to bring the raw materials to the site, such as the lime, the sand or the chipped stones necessary for the masonry.

Two views of the scaffolding used for the construction of the pinnacles of the Nativity faade.

Detail of a completed pinnacle

The stonemasons workshop at that time

This was the most important workshop at that time, since the whole faade was sculpted in stone. It was one of the places with the largest number of people working on the site.

In these images we can see the rails for transporting loads

System for lifting the materials

Team of stonemasons

Although initially the most usual lifting method was the rope and pulley, later the block and tackle with chains was introduced, and when materials had to be moved sideways a metal rail which allowed that movement was used.

Two photographs of the process of placing a plaster model on the site

Detail of the rails for moving the loads

Sculptural techniques
A life-size plaster model of the sculptural element was made in the site workshop (in the photograph, as an example, the exterior arch of the central door of the faade). Gaud, from in front of the faade, made any corrections he thought necessary. Once he had given his approval, the quartering was marked and the pieces were numbered; next the models were sawn and taken to the stonemasons workshop, where they were transformed into stone. For the figurative pieces, the process was slightly different. A plaster mould was made from photographs of the model or by directly moulding the plaster model from which a mould was made to be used as a positive. Next it was transferred to stone through a pantograph which gave the references for the points of the model on the block of stone through two compasses.

Different plaster models and a sculpture already made

Passion faade Foundation

This was built between 1954 and 1973, when mechanical resources were available, and so both the excavation and the transport of loads was done more quickly and comfortably. The foundation was made with a single huge slab of reinforced concrete and mounted with old railway lines.

Different sequences of the construction of the foundation

Construction of the different levels of the towers

The material used was reinforced concrete, although at first it was made of masonry mixed with Portland cement. The scaffolding system was the same as the one used on the Nativity faade, with the difference that here all the more structural part of the scaffolding was metal.

Different sequences of the construction of the towers View of the crane when it was nearly 100 m high.

Installation of the first large crane for the church

This crane, which had been displayed at the Barcelona trade fair in 1966, was purchased in 1968 for La Sagrada Famlia, since it was necessary owing to the huge scale of the work. The crane increased in height as the four towers of the faade grew and was anchored every 20 m.

Construction of the pinnacles

The pinnacles were constructed following the guidelines that had been used for the Nativity faade, with prefabricated reinforced concrete pieces.

Detail of how the different prefabricated elements of the Passion faade were put in place.

Detail of the pinnacles, where we can see the different arrangement of the prefabricated pieces.