Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Barcelona Part 1--Sagrada Familia

One amazing part of being here in Cambridge is that I am just a short plane flight from so many beautiful places. This past week I hopped on a cheap-o Ryanair flight with my friend Nick and off we went to Barcelona! I have too many Barcelona pictures to squish them all into one post, so I'm breaking them up into a couple of parts. Part One: La Sagrada Familia, architect Antoni Gaudi's amazing, rambling, modernisme church.
I have honestly never seen anything like this building. It is absolutely amazing, and no picture can do it justice. It's been under construction since 1892 and will be completed some time around 2026. The detail on this part of the church is stunning...there is always something to be looking at. I could have stood outside and stared at it for hours.
One of the things I loved were these turtles: a land turtle on the mountain-side of the church, a sea turtle on the Mediterranean-side, supporting pillars dedicated to Joseph and Mary and symbolizing stability and tradition.My friend Nick and me, so happy to be there!This is the actual front of the church, a completely different style from the back. So cool. It's looks like the figures are just hacked out of stone, very different from the ornately carved back, yet still incredibly beautiful.Inside, the place is like a forest of light. The pillars are modeled after trees, and the ceiling looks like a cross between leaves, daisies, and galaxies. As it is still under construction, there's scaffolding everywhere.
There is some beautiful stained glass as well:
We took an elevator and then some verrrry skinny stairs up to the roof, where we got a great view of the city (but on an unfortunately overcast day):
And of these fruit basket adornments on the tops of some of the pillars. I thought they were so whimsical and fun. A lot of this church was just fun, which was a refreshing change from the somberness of traditional churches and cathedrals.So, just a little taste of an astounding building!

Next up: Park Guell!

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