The Sagrada Familia is a Barcelona church created by the great Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. He began building it in 1882 and if things go as planned the structure will be complete in 2026. Gaudi was a especially religious man.
Building the church was so essential to him, that later in his life he worked on it exclusively, and even moved onto the construction site and lived there. He died in 1926 and is hidden in a crypt in the church. Gaudi’s other impressive architectural projects in Barcelona and hoteles barcelona have become important tourist attractions but the Sagrada Familia is his masterpiece.
During the Spanish Civil War and the following rule of Franco not much job was made on the Sagrada Familia. In fact during that epoch Gaudi’s workshop was burned. Fortunately many of his blueprints for the cathedral were saved. Although the designs he had built of the church were smashed, dedicated friends, pupils and supporters painstainkingly pieced them back together.
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One of the reasons it has taken so long to build the church is Gaudi’s insistence that no government money be used to pay for it. The job is being funded exclusively by donors. These donors include the thousands of visitors from around the world who pay an access fee to visit the church each year.
When complete the Sagrada Familia will have a main sanctuary for worship and eighteen enormous high towers. Elevators may whisk you to the top of two of the towers that are already completed for a spectacular view of Barcelona.
The front of the church is ornamented with more than a dozen scenes from the tale of the Birth of Jesus created by Gaudi. Each montage is made up of larger than life sculptures. You can see a recreation of the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt, the visit of the Magi, the engagement of Mary and Joseph and a gruesome representation of soldiers murdering all the baby boys in Bethlehem.
The back of the church has another set of sculptured scenes. These narrate the tale of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Created by a longer modern artiste, but remaining true to the plans laid out by Gaudi, these sculptures show Biblical events.
A special element on this part of the church is a enormous engraved grid with sixteen squares. Each square contains a number. There are 321 ways to insert 4 diverse numbers from these squares to make the amount of 33, the number of years Jesus lived.
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Gaudi loved the created earth and used creations from nature in all his buildings and hotel barcelona. Some of the Sagrada Familia’s towers appear like honeycombs. The major sanctuary is supported with pillars patterned after the trunks of giant California redwood trees. Its ceiling is sculpted to look like enormous leaves. Natural light will filter in from above. Gaudi wanted people to feel like they were sitting in the center of the forest as they worshipped.