Gaudí designed 84 tubular bells for the Sagrada Familia, conceived as a whole in the form of a monumental carillon. On the centenary of the architect's death, research has managed to reconstruct this bell system devised for the basilica, but never materialized, by the curator of the Gaudí Year, Galdric Santana. Inspired by this bell system, a symphonic work of the same monumental magnitude will pay tribute to the architect and his work in a free concert in Plaza Catalunya.
The work, precisely called 84 Campanas, by composer David Cieri, will fill the square with music under the direction of Marin Alsop, with the performance of the London Philharmonia Orchestra and the Cor de Cambra del Orfeó Catalá, along with soprano Núria Rial, and also Santana, who will play the three Gaudí bells that have been cast to date. It will be on June 11, one day after Pope Leo XIV blesses the tallest tower of the Sagrada Família, whose cross already dominates the Barcelona skyline.
The concert, free and open to the public, will start at 8 p.m. in the F1 Barcelona Fan Village in Plaça de Catalunya, as part of the official program of the Gaudí Year 2026. The event will take place one day after its institutional premiere at the Palau de la Música Catalana and will be the culmination of an artistic and research project that will allow listening, for the first time, to the sound universe imagined by Gaudí for the basilica.
And it is that, although Gaudí designed this system, it has not materialized. Gaudí's intention was for the sound of the carillon to be so powerful that it would turn the basilica into the instrument of Barcelona. The fire in Gaudí's workshop at the beginning of the Civil War destroyed a large part of the plans for these hyperbolic bells, and thwarted the architect's intention to bring the sound of the temple to the entire city.
Cieri, an expert in exploring the musical possibilities of bells and carillons, has composed the work based on the sound Gaudí imagined, within a project channeled through the Gaudí Chair of the UPC and the research by Galdric, curator of the Gaudí Year and also director of the chair. After twelve years of study, he has managed to reconstruct the bells originally conceived by the architect: "Recovering them means giving voice back to an essential part of his project," defends the expert.
Following this discovery based on years of research, American philanthropists residing in Barcelona Renée Chan and Patrick Mitchell have promoted the creation of 84 Campanas, with the aim of disseminating this finding and bringing it closer to the public, through a concert that will be completed with a selection of works that will shape an event connecting the architectural dimension with the musical and heritage aspects.