La Sagrada Familia is Gaudi's most famous work. Construction started in 1882, and Gaudi took over in 1883 and worked on it until his death. It is a very unique church. Not at all like the Gothic cathedrals one is used to seeing in Europe. There are two distinct sculpted facades. On the east side there is the Nativity scene and on the west is the Passion scene. The detail on the entire exterior is remarkable. It was difficult to get complete pictures of the exterior because I was so close and didn't really have the time to wander off.
East side facade. Nativity scene in the center.
Another shot of the east side.
View from the south side.
Nativity Facade
Closer look at the Nativity
Notice the detail
Passion Facade
Notice the different sculpting style.
There is a big difference in style between the East and the West facades.
Can't remember what this is but I liked it.
2 comments:
You can see photos and read stories about this architecture but you will still exhale a breathless "wow...." when you see it in person. Make this a destination point when you are in Barcelona.
I like the last door in this post. I was very curious as of the details, so I dug around a little and found this:
Door of the Coronation
1997
Bronze
x 239 cm
Passion Façade of the Sagrada Família. Carrer de Sardenya, between the streets Mallorca and Provença.
Barcelona
The South door of the Passion Façade of the Sagrada Família Temple in Barcelona is dedicated to the crowning of thorns and the episodes of Herod and Pilate. The upper part contains the main theme when Jesus, crowned with thorns is mocked and beaten. In the the centre, as a mirror game, the same scene is shown inverted, in such a way that on the left we see Jesus before King Herod and on the right before the Roman governor Pontious Pilate. On the lower part of the door we see a hyper-realistic representation of the bunch of heather branches that was used to whip Jesus, the condemned. In addition to allegorical details of all kinds, signs and symbols that enrich the bronze surface and of the text from the gospel that describes the episode of the crowning of thorns, this door includes some particularly significant literary references. On one side, a quote from Dante's 'Divine Comedy' and, on the other, a fragment of a poem from the book 'La pell de brau' by Salvador Espriu, that begins with these words: 'Sometimes it is necessary and right / for a man to die for the people / but a whole nation must never die / for a single man' (Translation from original Catalan).
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