Last Thursday, 20 March, was the first day of spring , the time of year when nature comes alive again after winter. It’s also when many fruit trees blossom, including almond, peach and cherry trees, which are currently transforming the countryside and filling it with colour. But did you know that there are also fruits like these on the Sagrada Família?
Fruit on the side naves and transept
The façades of the side naves of the Temple (east and west) are topped with six triangular pediments. Each pediment is crowned with a basket of fruit, with the tree’s leaves underneath. There are twelve baskets, contain twelve different types of fruit, laid out according to the time of year.
The fruits take us back to New Jerusalem, where the tree of life produced a crop for each month of the year. Farmers used to present their harvests on the altar as an offering before being blessed.
Spring and summer fruits:
So, on the Nativity side we have spring and summer fruits, looking to the east and the beginning of the day. Here we find (starting from the uphill side) loquats, cherries, plums, peaches and pears.
Autumn and winter fruits
And on the Passion façade side, we have autumn and winter fruits, looking west towards the end of the day and also representing the end of the year. Here we find (starting from the downhill side) apples, almonds, figs, persimmons and chestnuts.
The final baskets on this level are on the transept windows: on the downhill side we have oranges and on the uphill side, pomegranates.
The fruit on the spires on the side naves and transept represent the good deeds of humankind inspired by the Holy Spirit. A bit further down, around the lower windows, there are leaves of the fruit trees, with the fruit still on them. The fruit is green here, because the good deeds are still developing. A bit further up, though, the fruit in the baskets is ripe, because the good deeds have matured and born fruit, which is when the leaves fall off the trees and onto the pediments. And between the ogival windows and the pediments, there are figures of the saints who founded the major religious orders and are an example of good deeds (see infographic)
General view of the western façade (left). Baskets of oranges and chestnuts with the leaves that have fallen from the tree on the pediments (right)
The fruit spires on the windows of the side naves are covered in 'trencadís' mosaic. They were made by Etsuro Sotoo from an original model by Antoni Gaudí, which is now in the Sagrada Família Foundation collection.
Fruit on the central nave
Further up on the Temple, the façades of the central nave also have the same elements (triangular pediments with ceramic decorations at the top). Here we find the Eucharistic offerings: the sacramental bread and chalice of wine, also by Sotoo. The bread rises up above a sheaf of wheat, referring to the harvest it comes from, and has some red touches representing the poppies often found in wheat fields. The chalice of wine is on top of a bunch of grapes. The following ones alternate between bread and wine, although the chalices each feature a different type of grape: red, white and Muscat, with golden tones.
We’ll finish off this article with a reflection Joan Bergós, one of Antoni Gaudí’s disciples, heard from his master and shared in his book Gaudí: The Man and His Work . It is yet another example of how nature was an inspiration for all his work.
«Painting, through colours, and sculpture, through shapes, reflect existing organisms: people, trees, fruit... expressing inner aspects through outer ones. Architecture creates the organism, so its laws must be in line with those of nature.»
Joan Bergós – Gaudí: The Man and His Work. Page 38 (Translation)
