Sagrada Familia Barcelona Spain

Sagrada Familia is such an iconic landmark of Barcelona that I don't think you could miss it when you travel to the city. It was one of the first things that we did when we arrived and definitely the site that still holds the most standout memory of our trip for me.

The massive structure dominates the surrounding landscape and can be seen from quite some distance away. It just sort of appears through the trees as you approach it from a distance.

I was impressed by it right from the get go, right when I first laid eyes on it.

The sheer size of it along with its distinctive architecture style make it a truly unique building.

The original design of the cathedral was supposedly much different though. It was first designed by architect Francisco de Paula del Villar in 1882 and was basically meant to look just like a standard European gothic church; big of course, but much like any other that you see across the continent dating back to that time period.

However, shortly after it was designed, Paula del Villar was replaced by a new architect by the name of Antoni Gaudi, a man who was begining to gather a lot of recognition the field of architecture and design.

Gaudi redesigned the cathedral to the version it is today and construction began the following year, in 1883. It continued long after Gaudi's death in 1926 and even continues to this day. source for above info.

You can see that it's still under construction in some of the photos.

It's been under construction for so long, more than 100 years, that one wonders if it will ever be completed?

Only time will tell, I suppose.

It's not surprising that in many places you can actually see the difference between the old work and the new.

By the time they finish the building they will likely have to go back to the original sections and begin restoration work.

I've noticed that a lot of the very intricate detail work of many gothic cathedrals in France from that time period, often show signs of deterioration from the rain and other elements. There is a sort of melting effect in places exposed to the elements and the finer details often end up looking like wax slowly melting in the heat.

In the photo above you can see that they have already begun to restore certain decorative features.

The Interior

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Entry into the cathedral wasn't cheap at 26 euros, but I did think that it was worth it to go inside, at a minimum to satisfy my curiosity.

In the photo above you can see me marveling at the height and design of the ceiling.

I read somewhere (probably from a plaque inside) that Gaudi drew a lot of inspiration for the design of Sagrada Familia from different things found in nature.

The interior columns of the buildings were made to look like tree trunks and the ceiling was made to look like their canopy.

I thought that it definitely had that look about it.

In the photos you can see the branches of the tree stemming off from the main trunk.

I also thought that the ceiling looked a lot like flowers, maybe daisy's or something similar.

The stained glass was an interesting feature as well.

On one side of the cathedral the glass was colored in reds, yellows and oranges while on the other it was covered in different shades of blue and green.

The effect created a sort of visiual polarity with one side feeling warm and the other feeling cool.

If I'm remembering correctly, I believe that the colored glass was meant to represent the blue of water and the orange represented the sun. It created a neat visiaul affect, regardless of the intended meaning.

The church is also a museum dedicated to Antoni Gaudi and the construction of the building itself. In the basement there are a ton of information boards and photos of the various construction stages, as well as different plaster scale models of various design features found throughout. Something that I thought was neat was this inverted model made from suspended bags of sand. I found it to be pretty unique and unlike any model I had ever seen before. It still kind of boggles my mind when I try to image how this would be helpful when designing something. You kind of have to think in reverse and rotate the image in your head. I find that very cool and strange at the same time.

Between the church above and the museum below you could really spend some time in Sagrada Familia. We probably spent a little over an hour taking it all in but we didn't read everything contained on all of the information boards. You could easily kill two hours in there if you wanted and if you're big into museums and architecture. Even if reading is not your thing though, I think that the cathedral it's definitly worth checking it out. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well thats it for now. If you are interested in seeing more of my trip to Spain than stay tuned, theres more to come. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.