The Bishop of the Diocese of Alghero-Bosa, Monsignor Mauro Maria Morfino, attended the public meeting on Friday, June 12, at the Quarter, dedicated to the celebrations of the Gaudí Year 2026, declared by the Generalitat de Catalunya on the centenary of the Catalan architect's death. "Antoni Gaudí, la Sagrada Família i l'Alguer" (Antoni Gaudí, the Sagrada Família in Alghero) is the event through which the Municipality of Alghero, through its Language Policies Office, is joining the international commemoration of Antoni Gaudí and intends to highlight the unique relationship between the Catalan city of Sardinia and the Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona.
The initiative, attended by the Mayor of Alghero, Raimondo Cacciotto, featured a speech by Gustau Navarro Barba, head of the Alghero Office of the Delegation of the Government of the Generalitat de Catalunya in Italy. A keynote address will be the screening of the short film "Sagrada Família. The Bible in Stone," directed by Jordi Roigé, who will also be present at the event. The film, produced by Animaset for the Sagrada Família basilica, offers a visual and spiritual interpretation of Gaudí's temple as a true "Bible in stone," through light, nature, architecture, and the biblical narrative.
According to the ICAA's information sheet, it is a 10-minute documentary short film directed by Jordi Roigé and produced in 2019. The short film has already been presented at the Vatican Film Library, where it was screened before a representative of the Church, institutions, and the media. It also traveled to Italy, having been selected for the 22nd edition of the Religion Today Festival in Trento and screened on May 21, 2026, at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, as part of the "Art, Faith, and Beauty in the Work of Gaudí" event, promoted by the Delegation of the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia in Italy on the occasion of the Gaudí Year.
The day also included a talk by Sardinian architect Angelo Ziranu, who worked on the Sagrada Família for five years, offering a firsthand look at the temple's construction, symbolic, and artistic process . The connection with Alghero is also visible in one of the stained-glass windows in the central nave of the Expiatory Church, dedicated to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Valverde, making Alghero one of the few cities symbolically present in Gaudí's great work. This aspect was emphasized by former mayor of Alghero Carlo Sechi, recalling the figure of Don Antoni Nughes, the initiator of the installation, in a context that allows us to understand Alghero's presence in the central nave of the Sagrada Família through the window dedicated to Valverde.
