Barcelona Day 6: La Sagrada Familia!

In the past several blog posts I have mentioned La Sagrada Familia over and over. But what exactly is this mysterious monument, you may ask? Well, Michal and I finally visited it on our last morning before heading to the airport to fly back to Vienna. La Sagrada Familia is a huge (understatement) church, designed by Antoni Gaudi (surprise surprise).  We stayed in a place pretty close to this imposing building so we went to check it out our first night there, and were disappointed to se so much scaffolding set up all around it. I mentioned to Michal that it seems like every church or cathedral I visit is under construction when I visit, but she mentioned to me that it’s actually not under construction…it is still being built!! It was begun in 1882, but because of monetary issues and the simple fact that it takes ages to build something of that magnitude, it still is not done. The current projected end date is sometime between 2030 and 2040, but who actually knows?! 

Anyway, this place is gorgeous. The outside of the church is designed to have 3 facades: the Nativity Façade (the only one Gaudi actually completed before he died in 1926), the Passion Façade (completed by a different artist in a complete different, but still cool, style), and the Glory Façade (not done yet). It is difficult to describe how the church looks from the outside because it’s so unique, but the best I can come up with is that from afar it kind of looks like a drip sand castle. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

We entered through the doors in the Passion façade, which you can see in the pictures below. The figures decorating this façade are very angular and clearly works of modern art, which is strange to see in a church, I feel.  Apparently there is a lot of controversy over these figures, with a sort of “love it or hate it” debate, and I can definitely see why. I’ll let you decide for yourselves how you feel J 

I liked these pictures on the floor of the entrance

Michal was disappointed by the inside of the church, because we had both thought that it would be very full, with tons of detail, the kind of place that you can stare at for ages and constantly see something new. On the contrary, it was very very plain. I still liked it a lot, though. The stained glass windows (my favorite part—I LOVED them) harkened back to the Gaudi tiles of Park Güell. Rather than showing a picture or telling a story, they were just very very bright, colorful, abstract jumbles. The nave is huge and supported by giant pillars that are designed to look like trees. The idea is that when you stand in the nave it feels like you’re on the floor of a forest. It was really neat, I thought.

SUPER high ceiling

These four columns (only 3 in the picture) have the symbols
of the 4 evangelists on them (lion for Mark, Eagle for John, etc)

My favorite part of the church, by far, was the Nativity façade. Now this is a piece of art/sculpture/architecture that you really could could stare at for days and days and still find new things. The various sculptures on the façade tell the story of the nativity, as the name suggests, with incredible detail and artistry. The events included are the annunciation, visitation, flight to Egypt, wedding of Mary and Joseph, massacre of the innocents, adoration of the shepherds and magi, presentation of Jesus in the temple, Jesus at work, and a few others. One part I thought was especially cool was the way Gaudi included certain names and words in the sculpture but weaved them into the figures themselves so you almost don’t realize there are words there. The whole façade is really a work of incredible genius. Like I said, I could have spent hours staring at each section of the façade, taking in each and every detail.

You can see where the older stuff ends and newer stuff starts

That concludes the chronicle of our time in Barcelona! In general, I found it to be a lively, fun city that I would certainly go back to again in the future! I can’t say it’s my favorite city I’ve ever been to, but I definitely enjoyed it and I highly recommend a trip there for anyone looking for an interesting destination to travel to!