Reflection at Corpus Christi from Philip Harvey, published in the pew sheet of St Peter’s Eastern Hill, Melbourne, June 2026
This year the cross was, at last, positioned atop Sagrada Família, one hundred years since the death of the architect. Antoni Gaudí died after being hit by a Barcelona tram in 1926. Some say this year’s construction completes, in true medieval fashion, a building begun 144 years ago; others say there is more work yet on the project. Like everything Gaudí designed, there is nothing usual about his cross.
The arms of the cross use his famed double twist geometry. They are square-shaped at the outer ends, octagonal at the inner ends. The cross is 17 metres high, about the height of a five-storey building, and this is for a reason. Gaudí wanted the cross to be seen everywhere in the city, to shine by day and illuminate by night. White glazed ceramic and glass is used, radiant materials that can withstand atmospheric exposure. Winching such an object atop the highest pinnacle of the basilica has been a considerable engineering feat. Inside an aperture of the cross a sculpture of the Agnus Dei is placed, in accordance with the original drawings.
Much of the architect’s planning for the church was all in his head. He left behind models but not lots of blueprints. The generations after Gaudí continue figuring out his design intentions and RMIT specialists in Melbourne have played their own part. Professor Mark Burry and his colleagues took up the challenge of figuring out the enigmatic geometric codes of Gaudí, first through drawing graphic recreations of his plans, then applying aeronautical software to reveal his amazing and unique constructive genius. The Design School was then able to apply these discoveries to address unresolved questions about the church’s many elements in order to complete unfinished parts of the building.
This
month Pope Leo XIV visits Barcelona. There he will dedicate the Tower of Jesus
Christ, with its newly positioned cross. While this will be a big moment in the
life of the city, public attention is also being paid to the possible beatification
of its designer, who was declared Venerable by Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis,
only last year. Be that as it may, these words of the church’s present
architect, Jordí Faulí, speak directly of Gaudí’s intentions: “He wanted to
move people, to inspire them by seeing the facades, entering the interior, and
seeing these treelike structures that rise upward into the space for the
Eucharistic celebration, and for all this beauty to reach everyoneʼs heart so
they would think about their lives, think about the life of Christ and their
own lives, and that this would lead them to feel loved, welcomed, and ready to
love others.”
