{"id":1367,"date":"2015-06-11T23:56:44","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T15:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/?p=1367"},"modified":"2019-02-03T17:22:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-03T09:22:04","slug":"la-sagrada-familia-as-stunning-as-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/2015\/06\/11\/la-sagrada-familia-as-stunning-as-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"La Sagrada Familia – As Stunning as Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi’s ongoing labour of love, is all the more stunning now as completion is in sight in 12\u00a0years time. As probably the last grand cathedral project in the world, it simply is a must visit. Even though\u00a0Gaudi’s design was mooted more than 100 years ago, the interior of the cathedral\u00a0looks timeless, even other worldly. The stained glass windows, installed over the past ten years have fill the basilica with colour.<\/p>\n

\"Gaudi<\/a>
The ceiling and columns looks otherworldly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gaudi<\/a>
This is the inside section of the Nativity Facade\u00a0in 1989<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I visited La Sagrada Familia in 1989, 2002 and recently in April 2015. So basically, these 14 year gaps mean that each trip back to the church is like an entirely new discovery for me as more construction goes on. I loved it the first time I visited because I basically had little idea of the extent of Gaudi’s creativity.\u00a0\u00a0Back then, there were fewer visitors and the cathedral\u00a0was just an empty shell. Because of this, I was able to walk around the perimeter of what would be the cathedral’s roof and really get a close up view of the carvings on the towers. Too bad I didn’t take as many photos back then.<\/p>\n

\"Gaudi<\/a>
View of four of the eight towers in 2002<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I went back in 2002, you couldn’t walk around the perimeter anymore but you could still get a clear view of the exterior of the towers at eye level from the other end. The columns of the cathedral were coming up but not the roof.<\/p>\n

\"Gaudi<\/a>
Columns were coming up but not all the walls were up yet in 2002<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lot has been accomplished in the construction since 2002 with the basilica largely complete. I was really astounded in my recent visit since in 2002, the basilica was devoid of colour. The columns were coming up but had no mosaics on them yet and the stained glass windows were not installed for another few years. Since colour has been integral to Gaudi’s designs, it really is a remarkable sight now.<\/p>\n

\"Gaudi<\/a>
Looking at the apse from the mid section<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gaudi<\/a>
Stained glass windows fill the cathedral with various colours in 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gaudi<\/a>
The apse with the cross<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gaudi<\/a>
Behind the apse, organ pipes rise upward<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gaudi<\/a>
Crossing area – note the design camouflaging the\u00a0ambulatory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gaudi<\/a>
Above the public entrance on the Nativity\u00a0side of the cathedral – this is what this section looks like now, it was the shell I took a picture of in 1989 (see above)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gaudi<\/a>
Looking up at the spiral staircase in the Nativity Tower – even here\u00a0Gaudi seeks nature’s shapes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gaudi<\/a>
Outside the Passion facade entrance with sculptures by Josep Maria Subirachs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gaudi<\/a>
View of the exterior upper level windows from the Nativity Tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

La Sagrada Familia remains probably the most stunning landmark to visit in Barcelona. I went first thing in the morning, which I highly recommend in order to avoid most of the crowds. I bought my tickets online as well as that to go up the Nativity Tower. To save having to queue up twice, it’s best to buy the tickets online. I was there for two hours. It’s also worth visiting the museum on sight to get more information on the history and the ongoing construction of La Sagrada Familia. I think for every visit I make to Barcelona, I will always aim to visit this amazing place, whether complete or not.<\/p>\n

La Sagrada Familia’s website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.sagradafamilia.org\/en\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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La Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi’s ongoing labour of love, is all the more stunning now as completion is in sight in 12\u00a0years time. As probably the last grand cathedral project in the world, it simply is a must visit. Even though\u00a0Gaudi’s design was mooted more than 100 years ago, the interior of the cathedral\u00a0looks timeless, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,1,20,13,2],"tags":[82,43,81],"class_list":["post-1367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-home","category-spain-greece","category-spaingreece","category-gaze","tag-barcelona","tag-featured","tag-spain","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1367"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1401,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions\/1401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}