March 31
So as previously mentioned, the day was super windy and pretty chilly. We were about 15 minutes early for our tour and the wait outside Sagrada Familia was tough. Johnny was none too please:
Was it the cold or the architecture that he was unhappy with…. we’ll never know.
Our guide found us and we moved to the front of the church to get started. Our tour guide was awesome. She was very knowledgeable, quick and to the point. I took a few notes about things that I thought were cool. It is by no means a comprehensive list, but I’ll point out what I can. There is a TON of symbolism throughout the sculptures and architecture of the building. I’ll mention what I can remember.
So from the front, there are three porticos. The middle is dedicated to Jesus, the one on the left is dedicated to Joseph and the one on the right to Mary. The tour guide stressed the importance of the holy family in Gaudí’s design.
The above scene is the nativity with the three wise men on the left, the shepards on the right, the angles slightly above playing instruments.
Sagrada Familia was designed by Antoni Gaudí and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was started in 1882, which is 136 years ago for anyone doing that math, and is still far from being finished.
More views of the front:
Originally, Gaudí wanted this facade to be painted a wide variety of colors. I think we can all agree that would have been a huge mistake. Gaudí is already pushing gaudy as it is. Come on… the joke is funny. You know you laughed and I had to make it at least once in this post. It’s just too easy!
Here is a column near the door with a huge turtle which our guide stated was a symbol of continuity – continuing slowly and steady – very similar to the state of the construction.
Also out front is a cypress tree, which is the tree of life, and a pelican at the base of that cypress. I can’t totally find it right now. Our tour guide mentioned that a pelican is the symbol of ultimate sacrifice, willing to tear her heart out and feed it to her babies in time of famine. Definitely nothing that I had ever heard before. But catholiceducation.org is telling me that the symbolism is rooted in an ancient legend that during famine, a mother pelican will strike her breast with her beak to feed her young with her blood to prevent starvation. Our guide was stating more as fact than legend, but you know I deal only in facts on this blog (and my own wonderful opinions).
The church is 90 meters long, 60 or 45 meters wide depending on what section of the church you’re standing in. There are 18 spires, but only 8 of them are built yet.
The spires are for:
Jesus
Mary
12 apostles
4 evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John)
Jesus’ spire is going to be the biggest with a giant cross on top at 170 meters. Wikipedia is telling me something that I think is awesome: 170 meters is one meter less than Montjuïc hill which is in Barcelona. This is because Gaudí believed that his creation should not surpass God’s. Apparently, the completion of the spires will make Sagrada Familia the tallest church building in the world.
Interesting fact is that Gaudí wasn’t the first architect. There was a more famous architect at the time who started it but quit because his design and fees were too expensive. Gaudí promised to do it cheaper (and radically different). I’m not sure if the guide was joking or not, but since the church still isn’t finished and Gaudí has died already, she made the joke that it ended up being cheaper because they never had to pay him. But if nothing else, Gaudí used local materials that were less expensive. The below is a quote by him that is written in the school next to the church. Many years ago, they had a school building built so the children of the workers would have a place to study while their fathers worked.
“When the building simply has what it needs with the resources available it has character, or dignity, which is the same thing.” Antoni Gaudí
Gaudí died at 73 in 1926 when less than a quarter of the church was finished. Here is a picture of what was finished when he died. The open space is the inside of the church. It was really just the front facade that was completed.
The tour guide was very specific to say that the church is designed with Gaudí in mind, not by Gaudí, since he didn’t have the most specific plans laid out when he died. He had some models built, but much of them were destroyed in the Spanish war.
Sagrada Familia’s construction has been funded completely by private donations which is the reason why it is taking so long to build. Also, construction stopped during the Spanish civil war. Computers have helped speed up the process in the last 20 or so years, but even so, there are still 10 more spires to create and our tour guide told us about a larger issue: the main entrance. Here it is:
(Note: I’ll talk about this door later on in the post, so take a glance at the words on it now.)
Doesn’t seem like that big of an issue, right? So here is the issue: that is twenty or so feet off the ground and stairs need to come out of it. The design assumed that the entrance would start on the opposite side of the street. But there are apartments there that will need to be demolished before this can happen and apparently the people that live there don’t want to sell because they are reasonably priced apartments in a great part of town. So our guide told us there was zero chance that it would be completed by 2026 which is currently the date being promised (and 100 years after Gaudí’s death).
So… let’s go inside.
The first couple of steps were incredible. I don’t think any of us could have expected the inside to look like this. It was so different in style from the incredibly ornate facade outside. Huge. Open. Bright. It was overwhelming in its simplicity.
Here is Johnny about one minute after entering and about one minute before falling asleep. He may actually already be asleep in the above picture.
The first picture below, you can see four columns (well you see a bunch, but look for just four) that have ovals between the main column and where it branches off towards the top. One oval is yellow, one is orange, one is green (facing away a bit) and one is blue (facing away even more – you can just see the blue outline). These four columns are for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each name is with the Evangelists’ traditional symbol: a winged bull (Luke), a winged man (Matthew), an eagle (John) and a winged lion (Mark). Never knew they had symbols!
Here is the altar above. Notice that Jesus’ head is pointing up to heaven instead of down to earth. Apparently that’s not standard. My religious scholars can chime in, but what I found online just led me to a slightly graphic explanation of death by crucifixion that I will not repeat here.
The main nave was covered and the organ was installed in 2010, which allowed this unfinished building to be used for religious services. Note the organ behind the altar in the above picture which is also not normal. Pope Benedict consecrated the church in 2010 with 6500 people inside and 50,000 outside. More than 100 bishops and 300 priests attended. There is now mass every Sunday and every holy day of obligation that is open to the public. I was surprised that they only celebrate mass once a week.
I was surprised by this tidbit of information and I cannot find confirmation online, but our tour guide told us that visitors weren’t allowed in until after the church was consecrated. So visits just started in 2010. With over 3 million people visiting each year, the foundation that runs the church and oversees its construction no longer has a funding issue. Now it’s just a matter of the logistics of building it.
Now, the most incredible parts, in my opinion are these stained glass windows:
That’s right. Johnny is done for. You’re missing it, kid!!!
Ok – so the windows are incredible, but I’ll show you a better view towards the end of the post. For now, we’re heading back outside to see the back of the church. Since the front had the nativity, the back obviously has… the passion.
A different feel, am I right? It is incredible how the tone can be so different and so appropriate. Hard edges and straight lines made already intense moments feel that much more intense. Above you can see Jesus carrying the cross and Veronica with the imprint of Jesus’ face on her cloth.
I think this is Mary:
And the soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ robes in the back part of this picture:
Judas’ kiss of betrayal on the right:
Jesus being whipped below. Also notice the alpha and omega in the upper left hand of the picture. Our tour guide noted that the way it is depicted there makes it look like a free mason symbol which you will see in a few places around the church.
And this is Pilate’s scene. You can see him seated and Jesus to the left. What I think is interesting is that they also included Pilate’s wife in the scene. She is shown to the right with her back turned on Pilate, presumably after she tried to convince him not to condemn Jesus to death in the Gospel of Matthew.
After seeing the passion and taking a quick stop in the museum/former schoolhouse, our tour guide left us and we had some free time to wander around. Also at this time, Johnny woke up. We went back in to spend a few more minutes gazing at those beautiful windows. And then the best thing happened.
Johnny was amazed by the windows! It was such an incredible sight to see how excited he was by how beautiful they are.
This is what he’s looking at in the above pictures:
His face is exactly how all of us felt when we saw them.
All of the pedals and circles have names of saints and holy places in them. The red windows, which Johnny was looking at, has typically hot weathered locations such as Guadalupe shown below in the center of the flower and Nazareth and Ephesus shown in the second picture.
And Johnny’s opinion of the blue windows? Still awesome. These pictures don’t even do it justice. He just kept pointing at them, making sure we all saw what he was seeing. It was very moving.
The blue windows were my favorite.
In the second picture, the center is Loreto. I was initially pumped to see it since I was taught by the Sisters of Loretto, but apparently the Sisters of Loreto are a different congregation that had Mother Teresa of Calcutta among their ranks. So I’m going to pretend they just misspelled Loretto, Kentucky, and you all can take from it what you wish.
One final thing to end on. Everything in the church was written in Catalan which is the dominant language in Barcelona. I though that was really cool. So when you see the main entrance (which I told you to make note of above), it has the Lord’s Prayer in Catalan. But behind the Catalan, the prayer is also written in 56 other languages to reinforce that everyone is welcome in this church.
We had a wonderful visit to Sagrada Familia. This face was definitely the highlight of barcelona and of the past few days for me. It was amazing to have this sweet baby, my awesome sister and wonkandy with us for a few days.
