I have already told you guys how much we enjoyed Barcelona and how surprised I was with how much I loved Gaudi’s work, but his greatest masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia, deserves a post all of its own.
It’s not very often (or ever) that I dedicate posts just to a cathedral so the fact that I am writing this at all tells you I love it. Still, this next thought may still shock you. La Sagrada Familia is the most amazing cathedral I have ever been to. Ever. To give you an idea of how many cathedrals/churches/synagogues/basiclicas (I will use cathedral to refer to all of these) I have been to, just about every trip we ever go on involved stepping inside of 1-3 cathedrals..per day. Every city in Europe has a cathedral in its top 5 tourist attractions, some cathedrals double as museums, and some are inside of castles. In case you were wondering, yes, I have been to Florence, Rome, and the Vatican. I estimate I have been inside almost 1,000 cathedrals in my life (if that is an exaggeration, its not by much) and La Sagrada Familia is the only one that really spoke to my soul.
Most times I go in cathedrals, while I am in awe of their beauty and ornateness, I can’t help but also feel a little disgust for the history they represent and the corruption that often occurred to get them to their levels of glory. This is not the case for all of them (a cathedral in Lyon France was entirely financed by wealthy patrons in thanks to go for saving them from the plague), but generally speaking, history doesn’t really shine a positive light on the history of these buildings. Nonetheless I am always drawn to them for the history they represent and contain. La Sagrada Familia has been built entirely by donations over the 135 years it has been under construction (it is famous for being the longest runing construction on a cathedral in the world).
A lot of cathedrals also end up looking very similar and after a while they can blur together with only a few truly standing out (Duomo in Florence, Cathedral in Aachen, Westminister Abbey….). La Sagrada Familia may have the skeleton of classic Gothic architecture, but beyond that, it is unique in every beautiful way.
One of my favorite parts of the cathdral are the branching colums, like trees, holding it up. They made me feel like I was in some fantastical world (like the movie, The Point (with Oblio)…if anyone has ever seen it.) There is so much math and science involved in the design of this cathedral, but I won’t go into all that. All that matter is that the ratios, dimensions, and shapes integrated into the design all play into the magical experience that is walking though the cathedral. The graduated tones of stained glass mezmerized me, meeting Gaudi’s intent to create an atmosphere for introspection. Gaudí said that colour was the expression of life, and I am not here to disagree with him on that! I could have stared at those windows for hours.
The cathedral has 3 distinct fascades, and they really are so unique from each other – you could spend a whole day just looking at all of the details on the outside! According to La Sagrada, they represent the three critical times in Jesus’ life – his birth, passion, and death. While I see the cathedral through eyes of an art and architecture lover, others may recognize the Christian symbolism such as 18 towers for 12 Apostles, 4 gosples, Mary (crowned with a star), and Jesus. The sculptures on the façade representing the death are so unique compared to any other type of art in cathedrals I have seen in how geometric it all was. Yet even without typical form, they still exuded emotion and feeling. I also realy liked the rooftops with the fruit, corn and grapes – representing the symbols of bread and wine. It just isn’t something you normally see!
It is hard to eloquently describe how happy being in this cathedral made me. I would love to go back and do a more in-depth tour. The crazy thing is we almost didn’t visit here at all! I was a bit burned out on cathedrals and didn’t realize what we would have missed. Luckily we found out before it was too late!
If you are ever in Barcelona, make sure this is on your list! (& check out my other post on the other top attractions in Barcelona!)
Xx
Kali