We ended our tour with Patrick about Modernism and Gaudi at the Sagrada Familia.
It all started with the Association of Devotees of St Joseph purchasing a lot to build a temple dedicated to the Holy Family. Gaudi became involved in 1883 by transforming the original neo-gothic design into his trademark style.
He expressed Christian belief through the architecture of the cathedral and captured the essence of transcendence with lofty forms, geometry and light and colors. It consists of 18 towers, each of them with a specific meaning; the central tower will be dedicated to Jesus Christ with a height of 170 meters (560 feet). 3 monumental facades represent Christ’s birth, his Passion, Death and Resurrection, and future Glory.
Gaudi planned the construction in modules and experimented with balanced and self-supporting structures using inverted models. He was inspired by the idea of a forest of leaning columns that will breach out like trees.
However, the highest point will be one meter less than the Montjuic hill as Gaudi believed that human-made structures should be shorter than God’s structures.
David had been here once with Michael at the end of his cruise to the Athens Olympics in 2004 but there were plenty of scaffolding and workers inside the building at that time.
The interior is now finished and is spectacular; the light is brought by skylights decorated with stained glass of graduated tones from warm colors of reds and yellows towards the sun and blues and greens in the opposite direction.
Gaudi died in 1926 after being hit by a tram before completing the Basilica and is buried in the crypt.
The construction is financed by donations only and by the tickets sold to visitors; $1 million is being raised each day. Sagrada Familia was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and designated as a minor Basilica. It was planned to be completed in 2026 for the centenary of Gaudi’s death but it has been already delayed to 2028 due to the pandemic.
See photos at Sagrada Familia here:
Visiting the Sagrada Familia is not cheap with the basic ticket costing €26. But it is definitely worth spending the money to enter the tallest religious building in Europe with the unique and iconic style combining Art Nouveau, Catalan Modernism and Spanish late Gothic from Gaudi.
Time to smell the roses...Sur les Chemins du Monde... 