What's the big deal with Barcelona's Sagrada Familia? Photo / Getty Images
What's the big deal with Barcelona's Sagrada Familia? Photo / Getty Images
More than 100 years in the making, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia is a modern-day miracle, writes Helen Van Berkel
Beauty. Majesty. Genius. Absolute bonkers. The unbelievable scale of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia is a visual and visceral blow, a sensory overload. Antoni Gaudi’s masterpiece tops every “must-see” list of not only Spain and Barcelona but surely of Europe. It is a confection of such magnificence that it takes more than your eyes to fully see.
The cathedral was only a few blocks from my AirBnB in Barcelona and I walked past it daily on my way to anywhere. I couldn’t set foot on the Ave de Gaudi that led directly to the nativity facade without pausing to admire and absorb the architectural miracle that is the Sagrada Familia.
Because you don’t just look at the 18 towers as they reveal themselves before you, you absorb them: their detail, their sculptures, their shapes, their colours, and every time you see more details. I walked towards and around the fabulous construction every day and I felt like I had to ready myself to enter its portals.
The unbelievable scale of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia is a visual and visceral blow, a sensory overload. Photo / Getty Images
Construction started on the Sagrada Familia in 1882. It was designed to be a church that would bring glory to Barcelona from the very beginning, although Gaudi didn’t take over as the principal architect until a year later.
It is advisable to book to see the cathedral: queues are typically around the block. And if, like me, you’re sceptical about the whole booking business, go via Tourisme Barcelona: they have a little booth next to the cathedral – and scattered around the city, in fact - and being independent give you unbiased advice. I used them for just about everything in Barcelona.
I also downloaded an audio tour which guided me through the great cathedral and let me pause the narration whenever I needed more time to examine its nooks and crannies. You don’t have to be religious to be blown away by the creative artistic and architectural genius that unfolds before you.
Each facade of the church tells a different story of the life of Jesus and the entrance is via the east facade, which, naturally, starts at the beginning. The story of the nativity is told in stone and its story of hope lights up with the morning sun. The first to be built, the east facade was the only side Gaudi himself saw finished.
I walked around the outside first, drinking in the magnificence of the carvings. A scale model in the corner near the entrance shows the finished cathedral – it is expected to be completed in 2026 when the glory facade is unveiled.
Outside Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Photo / Getty Images
The east side tells in sculpted stone the story of the eponymous holy family from Jesus’ birth to his visits to the temple. Every individual viewer will see something else. The turtles. The Magi. The insects on the doors entering the building.
Then stand among the fluted pillars, designed to represent a forest as they soar to the roof of the church. Stand in one place and consider the engineering and creativity that has gone into this magical place and then explore it.
The stained glass windows filled the interior with a golden light when I visited early on a Sunday morning. I didn’t need the audio guide to point out that the glass was different colours on the east and west facades – a deliberate choice by Gaudi himself.
Europe’s Gothic churches are typically lit with a certain muted light that flows through the stories told in the windows. The Sagrada Familia is different. The light beams are like rainbows: clean, pure and straight: because the Sagrada Familia is a still-evolving work of art. Gaudi left drawings and plans of how his masterpiece would look like – but could not plan for the changing technology that has gone into creating smooth glass. The final result gives the impression of a far more modern nave than Gaudi likely had in mind.
Stand in one place and consider the engineering and creativity that has gone into Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Photo / Getty Images
While the tourists are absorbing the wonder of the basilica, below a church service was going on. For all that the Sagrada Familia is one of the architectural wonders of the world, it is still a living and active church. The worshippers gathered in a small chapel below the main church and we watched them through little windows as they enacted their mysterious religious processes with candles and songs.
The west facade is then all about the crucifixion. The statuary on this side is harsher, the angles more square, the lines spare and angular. But the details are still here: the dice, the robes.
A museum below the church tells the story of its creation. Original drawings by Gaudi show what had in mind and visual displays show you the engineering that has raised the building from the ground to tower over the city of Barcelona as a physical and a cultural icon.
Because this is a masterpiece that is still in the making and is fully deserving of all the superlatives that are attached to it.
