Photo Friday: Gaudi’s fruity cathedral
October 31, 2008 by Caitlin
Filed under Places & Inspiration
Barcelona, Spain; October 2008
We spent five days in Barcelona, staying in an apartment about two blocks from La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family), the famous cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi. It’s worth seeing for two reasons. Firstly, the architecture is startlingly original – it really is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The building reminded me of a giant wax sculpture – all melted curves and tapering spires. The classic religious imagery such as the Passion of the Christ and the Nativity is represented but there are also unexpected touches, such as colourful piles of fruit on the tops of columns.
Secondly, the cathedral is not yet finished. At the height of the vogue for cathedral construction – in the Middle Ages and Renaissance era – it took hundreds of years to build a cathedral. Now we can whack up a skyscraper in a matter of months. But it seems cathedrals, especially cathedrals with this level of architectural detail, still take some time. Construction started in 1882 and the roof only went on recently. Things are speeding up now though and the current timetable estimates completion by 2026. Like my friend Jess, I’m definitely keen to go back and check it out!
It’s not often you get to see a cathedral under construction and I found it really interesting to go in the lift to the roof and look down upon all the cranes, and then descend via a stone spiral staircase.. The whole interior is still a workspace as well, with just a walkway for tourists around the edges. Underneath the building is a museum with drawings and plans and plaster work models of various parts of the cathedral – these days, this kind of work is usually done on computer using 3D printing technology, but they are still using the traditional methods.
The cathedral opens at 9am and if you can get there at opening time, you’ll be pleased you did. Most tourists are not that organised so it’s still relatively quiet at that hour but an hour or two later the entry queue is around the block and there’s another long line inside for the lift to the roof.
This post is part of Photo Friday, a weekly blogging event hosted by Debbie at travel blog DeliciousBaby. Check out the other submissions this week and also my photo post on chocolate bull fighting at my food blog The Gooseberry Fool.
I love La Sacrada Familia but they must have built those piles of fruit since I was there last a few years ago as I don’t remember them.
Very interesting. Are there parts of the cathedral that are completed and in use? I think it’s great that they’re still working on it, piece by piece, very carefully. A lot of the new buildings (think sports stadiums?) being built in the US now will probably be deemed obsolete by the time this cathedral is done.
I did hear that they recently held mass there for the first time but I can’t see anything on the website about regular services. Most of the interior is still a work site so it would be a challenge. http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/index.php – Caitlin.
Thanks for this peek at a Gaudi landmark. I’ve got a little book of Gaudi’s work I should pull out and look at again. What little I’ve seen is fascinating!
I really loved the Gaudi design when I took a tour of one of the apartments/houses he designed and build. Curves really are more natural. But, I was a very bad tourist and didn’t actually visit the cathedral – only drove by. Oooo, good reason to get back.
That’s amazing that something is still building a good hundred year later. Thank you for sharing the story and great picture. Really make me want to go there some days.
I’m sorry for the late moderation – thanks for coming by and taking the time to comment. – Caitlin.
Great photo! It always makes me so happy to see photos of Barcelona. It makes me feel so grateful to live here – even if it’s only be for a few years.
I have visited the Sagrada Familia three times and I always manage to find new things to look at on the facades of the church.
When my husband and I visited the Sagrada Familia about a year ago, we opted not to bring the kids (they stayed at our apartment with the babysitter) so that we would visit at our own pace. I don’t think we’d really thought things through though… as soon as we saw all the construction in action we realized that the visit probably would have been one of the hi-lights of the trip as far as our kids were concerned!
I had visited the cathedral back in the late 80’s at a time when progress was very slow. With the economic boom, the pace has really picked up and it was amazing to see how much had changed. There’s a marked difference between the newer sections and some of the older ones — engineering has evolved a lot, and with new technology it’s possible to get closer to some of Gaudi’s more fanciful ideas than it was in the past.
Thanks so much for sharing
I think I am the only person in the world who did not like la sagura familia. I thought it was pretty ugly.
I never said it was beautiful! But I certainly found it interesting and worth seeing. – Caitlin.