Sagrada Familia Barcelona Organ

[tbeck]

I am vacationing in Barcelona and had a quick tour of the Sagrada Familia cathedral. (Or is it a basilica?) It is a monumental structure. There are some pipes visible on the altar and around one side of the altar. I thought at first that they might be simply decorative because whatever other pipework is hidden behind the facade pipes would obviously be inadequate for the huge space.

I spoke with guide in the church and he said the organ was functional and was in use for Sunday mass. I ventured that the organ was insufficient and he agreed that it was. It's not easy to find information about this instrument. There is more information available about the organ in the crypt, which is visible underneath the pipes on the side. I wasn't able to see the organ, however.

[aeolian pat]

This is an instrument by Orgues Blancafort, https://mander-organs-forum.invision...grada-familia/
I don't know how but i deleted the last post, so here it is again. Seems like it is a a unit organ. A larger 8,000 pipe instrument is planned for the rear.
I think Gaudi would have designed something quite a bit more in the nature line following his trees and birds, rather than off-road Diesel pick-up truck exhaust.

[tbeck]

I agree. The pipes don't fit the esthetics of the architecture.

[JeffW]

Gaudi would have designed something quite a bit more in the nature line following his trees and birds, rather than off-road Diesel pick-up truck exhaust.

Agreed! At least they designed the temporary organ with a bit of curve whose outline echoes some of the curves in the room.

Knowing the following exist (some for decades), the team creating the organ should really come up with something wonderful to complement the Gaudi design.

[aeolian pat]

For those who have not seen this masterpiece.https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sagrada+fa...604-WA0047.jpg
One of its miracles is that the buttresses are inside.

[Larason2]

It's a really interesting basilica, I didn't know it even had an organ! Gaudi was one of Barcelona's most famous people, one of the world's most famous architects, and he worked on the church for 43 years until he died tragically by being hit by a trolley car in 1926. At that time, only one bell tower had been constructed. The basilica is still in the process of being built. Even if he had planned for an organ, much of his plans and designs were destroyed or damaged in the Spanish civil war, in 1936. The work has been carried out in his honour by his disciples, and is considered a bit of a matter of civic pride among the people there, as I understand it. So I don't think there was a firm plan for an organ, and all the current designs were reconstructed from previously published photographs of them.