Sculpture of Christ, Sagrada Familia Passion Façade
Temple Expiatori Sagrada Familia is often used as the quintessential image of Barcelona. The famous soaring towers that look similar to the castles children make by dripping wet sand in gloppy piles can be found on postcards and t-shirts all across town and at duty-free in the airport. However, pictures do not do justice to the great structure, still under-construction after 125 years with at least 15 more to go, it stands in my humble opinion as the most beautiful man made building I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot. I have been to sixteen countries all over the planet but I have never seen a building that seemed to not have been built but actually grow out of the ground. The whole structure seemed to breath. Equally, the passion architect Antoni Gaudí poured into the plans and construction is evident in the attention to detail and ingenuity. The whole building is testament to his personal religious devotion expressed in stone.
The church began construction in 1866 under the direction of Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano but was soon taken over by Antoni Gaudí. In 1889 Gaudí received an enormous anonymous donation to the project which led him to abandon the orignial plans and totally redesign the church as an artistic expression of the gospels in sculpture and architectural symbolism. Gaudí worked tiresly even living in the workshop next to the church until his tragic death in 1926 when he was hit by a train and died three days later.
The work has been ongoing ever since and the design has evolved in the hands of different architects and sculptors. This was a desire of Gaudí’s that succeeding generations would add there own taste and vision to the construction. He viewed the work as an offering to God from the people of Catalonia. Even though the influence of other artists is evident the overall concept and design has remained faithful to Gaudí’s original plans.
To learn more about the history of Sagrada Familia visit the official website at: www.sagradafamilia.cat.