Chile will give shape to Gaudí’s only work outside Spain

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The city of Rancagua, in central Chile, will be the site of the only work of the architect Antonio Gaudí outside Spain, a project that will begin construction this year and that the Catalan artist gave to Chile as a gift four years before his death.

The desire of the modernist Gaudí (1852-1926) was to replicate a part of the Sagrada Familia in this Latin American country, according to an investigation by the team formed by the Chilean architect Christian Matzner, who in 1995 managed to declassify some letters between Gaudí and the Chilean friar Angélico Aranda that certified it.

“I went to the Diocesan Archives of the Archbishopric of Barcelona, where we found these letters exchanged between the two. We took a copy of them, and immediately the reactivation of this project began to work,” explained the academic from the University of Chile.

Gaudí’s wish will take shape in Rancagua, a city wedged between the Andes Mountains and the Coastal Range, 100 kilometers south of Santiago, where the Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles Chapel will be erected, based on his design and which will function as a cultural and spiritual center.

In 2016, under the mandate of Michelle Bachelet, the allocation of public funds was confirmed, and the documents that would officially allow the start of the works were signed, but the construction, which will take place in an urban park called “Cataluña”, has not yet materialized.

With a floor plan of 100 square meters and 30 meters tall, this will be the architect’s only piece outside Spain and is awaiting a new public tender for its construction, which is expected to begin this year, if the Covid-19 pandemic allows it.

Matzner has dedicated a large part of his professional life to this project, which has taken him to Barcelona to work with the director of the construction team of the Sagrada Familia, Jordi Faulí, and the regional teams of the Chilean Ministry of Public Works.

Due to the significance that this chapel will have for Gaudí’s historical legacy, one of the first challenges was the need to carry out a training program to provide the skills and construction tools necessary to execute the work, according to Alberto Texidó, director of Extension of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Chile.

“This opens up an enormous possibility for us to be able to disseminate this technical knowledge where work, architecture, technology, and craftsmanship are mixed to achieve what the Catalan architect did elsewhere,” he said.