One of the most outstanding architectural feats in the 20th and 21st centuries requires zero error so that the pieces can fit perfectly. This is what has happened in the case of large stone blocks being used at Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The Lugo company –PCM Granitos Moldurados-, which has been working at the Catalan Basilica site for over fifteen years.
One must achieve total perfection in the part of the blocks that link with other pieces of masonry. It is a millimetric work that has to be done manually. The error margin increases up to a maximum of 2 millimeters, but can not go further. “The stonemasons are those in charge of adding the finishing touch to achieve zero error, because with
the machines would be much harder to reach because they would have much greater wear and that’s why the final part of the work is done this way, “explains Octavio Vázquez, developing director of PCM, which began working in this family business in
2003, although I would work at the Sagrada Familia site much earlier together with the great sculptor Manuel Mallo.
PCM was born in 1992 from the vocation to implement new technologies in the treatment of natural stone. In the early days they worked a lot in the private construction sector but the crash that came in 2008 also seriously affected their finances company. Fortunately, their skills to produce unique stone pieces allowed them to continue working for clients like the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
The stones that are retouched by PCM are afterwards used what is known as the towers of the Evangelists and also at the basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary. If everything looks good work will be completed in the year 2026. Each of the pieces produced in the installation of PCM at the industrial estate of the Ceao in Lugo have to be certified and then they make their way to Barcelona by means of trucks. Trailers of 24 tons drive all the way to the Catalonian capital around ten times a month. The stone pieces, which are cut and processed for Barcelona, are from Galician quarries but also others come from Catalonia, England and France, too.
The meticulous work is carried out at PCM itself and was brought up to the attention of National Geographic, which dedicated to the company from Lugo several minutes of a report they made about Gaudi´s Sagrada Familia.