Sagrada Familia is THE iconic representation of Barcelona. It’s a huge cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi – an important founding member of the Barcelona (Catalan) Modernista architecture movement. His big influences were religion (of course) and nature. All of his designs incorporate aspects of nature. A big part of visiting Barcelona is to visit Gaudi locations. Today, we visited the iconic Sagrada Familia, Casa Vincens and Park Guell – all Gaudi designed.
Sagrada Familia is huge and we took so many pictures we wanted to share – so this blog post is specifically for Sagrada Familia. The next post will cover the rest of Day 2 in Barcelona.
Everywhere you look, Sagrada Familia is a dominant part of the skyline.
Sadly, Gaudi died long before the church was finished. You can see the cranes and areas they are still working on. Gaudi was born in 1852 and died in 1926. He lived a long time, but his accidental death was a tragedy for Barcelona. He was hit by a streetcar when crossing the street!
Since he already designed the Sagrada Familia, construction continued after his death based on his designs. In 1936, anarchists destroyed many of Gaudi’s original designs and set fire to the crypt. Luckily, he had made his designs public, so they were able to continue building using those public designs. They are aiming to be finished by 2026, in time for Gaudi’s death centennial (we’ll see!).
Anyway, here are our pictures…
This is the front door we were waiting at before entry. Immediately, you can see nature’s influence in the leaves over the doors (art, not live plants).
Of course, while nature influenced everything, this is a church, so there is a lot of religion! This side of the church is the “nativity facade”. Looking up over the doors, you see the “choir of angel children” over the door.
Finally, 9am arrived and we could go inside! The inside is as magnificent as the outside! Here is our first view across to the door on the other side.
Then, we looked to the left…The stained glass everywhere casts a colorful glow throughout the church.
And to the right…
Notice the tall columns – they represent trees branching out with leafy foliage at the top.
Gaudi also used a variety of geometric shapes in his design. Nothing is truly a plain, flat surface. Here, you get a good view of the spiral staircase and the leafy tops of the tree columns. And, of course, a view of one of the stained glass walls.
This was across on the other side…
Along the back wall, is this magnificent doorway. It will open out to the glory facade (still under construction). These doors have the text of the “Our Father” prayer in Catalan with the words “Our Father” and “Give us this day our daily bread” inscribed in fifty different languages. The handles of the door are the letters “A” and “G,” forming the initials of Antoni Gaudí.
It’s interesting to note that A & G handles are shiny from use. 😉
From the back near that door, this is the view towards the front…
We had to crane our necks to look way up high above the columns, which are 98′ high in the center.
From the front, here is a view back towards those doors.
And, across the church towards the door we entered (with the leaves)…
It’s really hard to give the idea of how large this church is with our pictures!
The appreciation of nature comes through everywhere in Sagrada Familia. Checkout the holy water shell…
Finally, a view of the front. You can see a part of the organ in the back.
After a loop around the inside, we exited through the opposite side. This side is known as the “Passion Facade”. The angled columns along the front are supposed to represent strained muscles holding it up. The lighter colored small columns above that are designed to be bone shaped.
I wish there was a way to get a better view of all the details which are too high to see easily – such as these spires – which represent four apostles.
Whelp, that’s our tour of the famous Sagrada Familia! Hope you enjoyed the pictures.