Basilica of the Sacred Heart

Popularly known as ‘La Iglesiona’, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart was built between 1918 and 1922 following two projects. The first project of the Iglesiona, later modified by Miguel García de la Cruz, was located halfway between the Gothic revival and the modernism of Gaudí’s influence. This link can be observed, firstly, in the interior. The temple, designed by the Catalan architect Rubio Bellver for the Jesuit Fathers in 1911, resorts in terms of the configuration of the internal space to solutions that refer us to the work of Gaudí, specifically in what involves the parabolic sections of the vault and the polylobed arches of the presbytery. The main façade, despite the maintenance of traditional elements such as the central rose window on the façade, gable and side towers, is presented as the framework of a decorative design based on a marked contrast of light and shadow with an expressionist tinge, visible above all in the towers. Named a Basilica in 2003.