Barcelona – Sagrada Familia

November 2018
Barcelona
 
Or more fully - The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família
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What a perfect way to end our first walking tour. We managed to dodge the roaming showers around that day, coming out of the blue line subway stop to be stopped at the first sight of this magnificent, if on-going construction site. A bit of triva; Gaudi wasn't la Sagrada's first chief architect, nor its last; Gaudi was so involved in all the day-to-day details of the construction that he set up an apartment on the upper floor of a nearby residence he designed (i.e. the Dragon House) so he could oversee the project; most of Gaudi's drawings and models were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War by Catalan anarchists; 10 spires are planned, with the largest one rising from the core of the basilica, the Christ tower, just being started. The whole thing is hoped to be completed by 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. The interior spaces are almost overwhelming in their complexity and visual impact. As we were getting ready to go, the clouds parted bathing the interior in incredible light streaming in from everywhere though its stained glass windows. This should be on your bucket list. There's nothing like it anywhere.
 

Nativity Facade - East facing.	Passion Facade - West facing. A big contrast from the highly decorated Nativity facade.
Nativity Facade - detail.	Interior - Central naive.
View from inside the Nativity entrance.
	Light projected across nave.
	West aisle near Passion facade.
East aisle before the light show.	From Transept looking toward Apse.
Tower detail.