Mimicking Mountains: Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia and the Shrine of Montserrat

To chart the history of the integration of the ideological and political ideas behind the motivations and design of the Basílica de la Sagrada Família during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this chapter examines the use of Montserrat's mountain as an ideological tool in Spain, Catalonia, and the Americas with the aim to trace the origin of the intricate and multiple ideological and religious symbolism of the mountain that was mobilized by Gaudí in his project for the Sagrada Família. Then, the chapter analyses Gaudí's architecture and its attempt to interpret architecturally the geological structure of Montserrat with the aim to make a bold statement on the religious symbolism of the Catalan mountain within the competing struggle between the different ideological groups that sought to capitalize both Montserrat's and the Sagrada Família's symbolism to suit their own political purposes. Ultimately the goal of this chapter is to discuss the entangled relations between religion, nature, and ideology, and to demonstrate the role that architecture and architectural interpretation of nature play within the mediation of these connections.