"Work on the basilica first started in 1882. An application for a permit was submitted in 1885 with a blueprint of the plans signed by Gaudí, but the council did not respond, according to the official architecture blog of La Sagrada Familia." The council may have been dumbfounded by such a strange and beautiful blueprint with a design the likes of which had never been seen before, so it decided it could not issue a permit for something it could not comprehend. Thus silencio.
