The Scotsman

Sagrada Familia

It is one of the longest construction projects the world has ever seen. Generations of workers have toiled at La Sagrada Familia to realise Antoni Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece in the heart of Barcelona. Now it has emerged that sandstone hewn from a Scottish quarry is to be used to complete one of the key parts of the world-famous Spanish church. Huge slabs of rock from the Clashach Quarry, near the village of Hopeman in Moray, are to be shipped to Spain each month for work to complete a ceiling and a main staircase of Gaudi's spectacular temple. Sandstone from the quarry of Moray Stone Cutters has already been used in the construction of the National Museum of Scotland and the extension to the National Gallery in Edinburgh, as well as the 9/11 memorial in New York. But Drew Baillie, the proprietor of Moray Stone Cutters, told The Scotsman yesterday that the Gaudi contract was easily the most prestigious in the 200-year history of the quarry. He said: "It is just amazing to think that stone from our quarry is going to be used in the construction of such an important building. And it is absolutely incredible to have a small part of Moray going there." The contract will involve up to five tonnes of sandstone, with blocks as large as one metre cubed, being transported to Spain each month for the next two years to the temple site where construction work first began in 1882.