Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in danger

Spain's most visited monument, Barcelona's extravagant Sagrada Familia church, could collapse if plans to build a high-speed rail link underneath the architectural wonder go ahead. The rail would run directly beneath its 22,000 tonne facade could threaten the church's grand entrance.
Antoni Gaudi's still-unfinished temple, under construction for 125 years, is famed for a revolutionary design that mixed art nouveau decoration with never-attempted engineering technology. Its 170-metre (560-foot) high spindle-shaped towers are Barcelona's most distinctive landmark.

The design proposed by Spain's railway infrastructure agency puts the tunnel just 75cm (30 inches) from special supports that adjoin the church's foundations. Moreover, geologists warn the tunnel's support wall would suck corrosive sea water up into the church's foundations.
The plan to dig the 12-metre (26-foot) wide tunnel below the Sagrada Familia has to win approval from city authorities, but some Catalan nationalists are already muttering the project is a Spanish plot to humble the autonomous region.

The proposed tunnel would link Barcelona to Girona and later, to France. A high-speed AVE line from Madrid to Barcelona is expected to be finished later this year, halving the time it takes to make the 370m journey between Spain’s two largest cities to only two and a half hours.

“We are extremely concerned about the tunnel passing so close,” said Jordi Bonet, the cathedral’s director, explaining that a protective wall would be built just 75cm (30in) from the foundations. Mr. Bonet, the chief architect who has spent 22 years trying to finish Antoni Gaudí’s surreal masterpiece, says the planned excavations “could prove fatal” for the landmark and cause “irreversible damage”. Giant tunneling machines will bore a 12m (39ft) wide tunnel through the sandy, water-logged land under the cathedral, he said, risking subsidence or flooding. Even if the cathedral survives the construction, Mr. Bonet fears the vibrations from trains could open cracks in the building or shake tiles loose from the ceilings, which tower 75m above tourists’ heads. Several thousand local residents have also joined the campaign, fearing that their homes could be affected. “We must protect the Sagrada Família,” they said in a recent statement, after forming a human chain around the cathedral. “We cannot allow anyone to endanger Gaudí’s jewel.”

Late april, 100 university professors signed a document opposing against the construction of the tunnel that could be fatal to Sagrada Familia. The International Council on Monuments and Sites, which advises Unesco on world heritage sites, has condemned plans for the tunnel as well.