The Spanish government has approved a project for a high-speed train line linking Madrid and Barcelona to pass underground four metres in front of the basilica's main facade on Mallorca avenue. This puts a serious danger the Expiatori Temple of the Sagrada Familia (and the Milà House), the greatest works of the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain).



The following issues must be considered:
1. The vulnerability and the weight of a building as unique as this one.
2. The unstable nature of the foundation of the construction and the underground currents that cross it.
3. The work with the tunnel will put a strain to the Sagrada Familia and its surroundings. The work will last 28 months.
4. Bearing in mind that the monument every day every day every day receives an average of 7.000 daily visits.

It is a shame to put forward a similar project, since partial detachments or even a total collapse of the temple have not been considered. Any collapse of the building would be a danger for the construction workers and/or visitors - the outcome could be fatal. The building is declared Patrimony of the Humanity by UNESCO.

But we would also like to mention that this is not the only building by Gaudí that is affected by the construction work, since the Milà House is in the tracing of the tunnel. Other celebrated buildings of the Catalan modernism, a singular farmhouse of the XIVth century, a refuge of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and two archaeological deposits, are affected as well, not to mention hundreds of housings of worried citizens living close to the Expiatori Temple of the Sagrada Familia.
+ Listen to the report of the BBC World radio