The Sagrada Familia has (almost) finished the works on the high-rise temple and the next step will be to tackle the façade of the Glòria, the one on Mallorca street. Decisive moment for the neighbors of the buildings opposite, who are restless. Because they don’t know what will become of their houses. Not even if there will be demolitions. Nor how many people will be affected. Nor if, if it is their turn, how they will be compensated: with money or other flats. The construction board repeats that “the staircase will be built”, that it was drawn by Antoni Gaudí and that it is “indisputable”, in the words of Esteve Camps, its president. But in 2018, those affected revealed a document from the Ministry of Culture, from 1975, which ensures that the architect did not design the staircase or the access plaza to the temple on Mallorca Street, which would involve demolishing buildings.
Between one and the other mediates the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni, which makes it clear that it will have the last word and defends three premises: that if housing has to be touched, it should be the minimum; that the neighbors be rehoused in new apartments close to where they live now; and let the temple board pay. Regarding the current moment, the board declines to comment. The City Council confirms that it is in talks with the Construction Board, but also with the neighbors “to find a solution to this situation that has dragged on.” The deputy mayor and councilor of Eixample, Jordi Valls, assures that what involves “changes in mobility, public space or housing” will be the decision of the City Council. “There will be no agreement that does not provide a solution to the housing needs of the neighbors who are affected by the project,” he makes clear and adds that “any solution must have the involvement of the temple in managing the enormous impacts it generates around it.”
But because we don’t know, we don’t even know how many neighbors we’re talking about. There was talk of a thousand, 400 and even 100, according to calculations from Ada Colau’s last term. The council assured in 2024 that the effects and their solution will be known before 2027. But the years go by, the works progress and the neighbors do not even dare to decide whether to change the windows or invest in renovating apartments that most of them bought decades ago. They also claim that the homes have lost value. And a no small issue: the Sagrada Familia bought a huge property from Aguas de Barcelona in 2019, just one block from the temple. An operation that was read as the land could be used to build homes to, if necessary, relocate neighbors.
The bulk of those affected are the residents of the hundred floors of the Núñez y Navarro building, just in front of the Glòria façade. There are two stairs, with entrance through Mallorca street itself and through Font passage. The president of the community of residents of Mallorca Street is Fernando Díaz Lastra. “Officially, the board wants the two blocks: from Marina to Sardenya and from Mallorca to Aragó,” he clarifies. Díaz Lastra has lived on the farm since 1976, “when the street was in the opposite direction and the buses stopped right at the door.” “Everything has changed. Now you don’t feel comfortable either at home, because we are restless, or outside, with the overcrowding, the loss of shops, the works in the square. The neighborhood is being lost completely,” he says. In the property, which originally had common areas classified as luxury, several apartments have been purchased by high-net-worth Chinese families.
An older couple leaves the same building. Handsome, they cross the portal with double doors made of good wood. They live in a 110 square meter apartment. They are very angry, but they don’t want their names to come out. Much less its image. They curse the names of the architect Jordi Faulí and Esteve Camps, the delegate president of the temple’s construction board. “These gentlemen are scoundrels, why do we have to leave home? They do whatever they want, they have built columns that step on the sidewalk, they invented the staircase, and where has this noise been seen non-stop for 40 years?” They are also tired of hearing tour guides explain to visitors that the building will be torn down. For this reason, two signs hang from the portal, addressed to the guides: “Don’t lie anymore!”, they tell them.
“It’s clamorous, we have the barricade getting closer, but no one says anything about our future, it’s a hot potato that has been going from hand to hand for 50 years,” exclaims Joan, who lives in the porch that is entered from the passage and points to the bus lane that the works have gained from the street. He doesn’t want photos either. Nobody lends itself. The neighbor thinks that “the doubt about whether the staircase was designed by Gaudí or not is legitimate.” But warn: “If the city considers that it has to be thrown away, it has to give us something under the same conditions, but perhaps the Sagrada Familia will react, because who wants this stain on their reputation.” At his side, Carmen, 80 years old, who bought the apartment 45 years ago and was not informed that it was affected, emphasizes: “Gaudí had a head, he didn’t think of this. I don’t know where I will end up, but let it be close.”
On the ground floor of the building, the tenant of one of the premises is moving because the rent is doubled. He joined four years ago for 600 euros a month and they ask for 1,200. He leaves: “It is disconcerting that, if we are threatened with having to leave, they will raise the price,” Simón complains. In the adjacent premises there is an agency that does design for advertising. They are not fired, but the price has gradually risen and they have decided to leave, after 25 years, and buy another location in Sagrera. “The environment has changed a lot, there is hardly any neighborhood commerce left and finding a menu that is not for tourists is almost impossible,” says Jaume.
David, also a tenant of the passage, does not understand how in the middle of the housing crisis there is talk of demolishing apartment buildings in the center of the city. “I am an artist and I value the Sagrada Familia, but rights come first, demolishing housing is not the best option. If it were easy to find rental apartments in Barcelona I could understand it, but it is impossible,” he laments.
In the Neighborhood Association of the neighborhood, its president, Gabriel Mercadal, responds to the moment of conflict with four points. One, “the association has been aware of the negotiating process from the beginning.” Two, “he has ensured that the Association of Affected Persons has timely knowledge of each progress.” Three, “it seems that progress is being made towards a balanced and acceptable solution, and we hope that it comes to fruition and that the details will be explained to us before publishing it.” And four: “We are asked for discretion so as not to entangle the dialogue. We ask for a little more patience from everyone.”
The president of the Association of People Affected by the Works is the lawyer and also neighbor Salvador Barroso: “We know that the City Council and the Board of Trustees have conversations. Ruminations, whatever you want, but we want certainties.” He complains that the last conversation between neighbors and the City Council was in the summer of 2023: “Since then we know nothing. We ask that you put yourself in the shoes of the neighbors. Let them think that no one likes to know that they have a Damocles sword and not know how, when or in what way it will fall on you. It is not understandable, it is an abnormal situation.”
