Been a bit of time since the last of my posts from our short trip to Barcelona. Up to this point, I have not included anything regarding possibly the most famous building in the city, Sagrada Família. If I am honest, this is something that I was only vaguely familiar with before we went. I had heard about it and the amount of time that it had been under construction but, until we saw a TV show about Spain that included it, I really wasn’t terribly up to speed.
We had a chunk of time set aside to visit and, having taken the subway to get there, we were well ahead of our time for our tour which gave us time to walk around the whole site and check it out from as many angles as possible. As with any famous tourist attraction in a big city, the place was absolutely mobbed. Since we were tourists visiting it, it would be churlish to think that we weren’t also part of the problem! Of course, with construction of the structure still underway, the amount of funding that we all bring in is probably important to helping get things finished.
As for finished, it famously isn’t. I thought I had heard that it was going to be decades before it was but either I got that wrong or things have accelerated. They have made a lot of progress with the seven main towers in place. When we went inside, our tour guide told us that they don’t know when it will be done either, but she indicated that it might be another decade and then it would be done. That doesn’t sound so bad. There is one whole façade that needs to be done. If you look at the more ancient cathedrals around Europe, they took huge amounts of time to build too so this isn’t out of the norm.
Another thing the guide told us about was that Antoni Gaudi’s philosophy was that the exterior of the building had to be the eye-catching element. Drawing people to the church is important and, when inside, it is less important to be wowed. The interior is actually very nice, but I shall cover that in another post at some point before too long. As I have mentioned in some other Barcelona posts, I am not a massive fan of Gaudi’s style. However, this structure is definitely interesting and worth checking out in detail. And there is no shortage of detail! So many elements across the exterior of the building with meaning built in. While we attribute it to Gaudi, it is worth noting that he died when barely anything had been built. Others have been taking forward his designs and concepts. Maybe he would be pleased with it, but we shall never know.
I won’t try and recall the details of the symbolism of the many elements of the outside. There is a combination of different periods during which work has been done which means the styles might vary significantly. There are some modernist features that look pretty cool but definitely seem at odds with other parts. I know that this annoyed some people, but the combination of styles is actually something that I appreciate. If everything was just one style, that might be a touch dull – a strange word to use for something that is so visually striking.
While I might not be so into the reasons for these buildings existing, I do appreciate the beauty that gets created. Whether it is a cathedral hundreds of years old or one that is still under construction, the scale and the adventure of them is something to behold. Walking around Sagrada Família was something so impressive. Next, it was time to head inside. I will note that being inside did give the ability to have a closer look at some of the external details too but, since there was no shortage of stuff to include in this post, I will save that for the next time.
