Barcelona travel blog part eleven -- Sagrada Familia

Don declared our fifth day a "quiet" day because we "only" had three things to do and we took the metro to the different spots. They were still three big activities:

Park Guell

Sagrada Familia

Pretty Woman: El Musical

This post is about the second stop on the day: Sagrada Familia.

Sagrada Familia means Holy Family in Spanish. Even when it is completed, it will never be considered a cathedral because each city only has one cathedral, and that is where the city's bishop resides. Sagrada Family was not even considered a church until November 7, 2010 when Pope Benedict XVI consecrated it.

If you do visit, allow extra time to go through full airport-level security (except you can keep your shoes on). I had put everything into one bag to make it quicker -- camera, phone, purse, but was asked to remove my camera and phone. So much for my efforts to speed things up. The line moved swiftly and soon we were inside the gate looking for our English tour guide. We were each handed radios with new headsets (which someone in our group referred to as "technology waste" -- I agree, which is why I kept mine to use afterwards on the airplane and other places I need ear phones.

Our guide thanked us for buying tickets to the church -- these days, that is how the renovations are being funded. They lost ground during Covid, both due to the inability to work, and the lack of tourist revenue to pay for work.

I did not catch our guide's name. I feel I should make one up for her to make the story more interesting. Since the Josephites were the ones who originally paid for the church, I'll refer to her as Josephine. She is a quick, short blond woman who probably gives these tours so often she could recite it in her sleep.

We moved over to the model of what it will look like when completed. The model did not mean that much to me.

To repeat what I learned on the earlier tour:

1) In the end, there will be three facades representing Jesus's life: birth, crucifixion, and the glory.

2) There will be 18 towers (12 apostles, 4 gospel writers, Mary, and Jesus). Nine have been completed. Four will be unveiled later this year. Still have five to go. Jesus's will be the tallest tower, but will be just shorter than Montjuic because he feels he could not go higher than what God has created. Luke and Mark's statues will go on their towers this year.

3) It was started in 1883 by Gaudi. Plans called for it to be finished in 2026 for the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. They lost 15 months because of Covid. Even tacking that on, being finished by 2027 or 2028 does not seem realistic.

4) At the top is a star to guide Jesus. There will be twelve stars -- one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. 

Some new notes:

* There are over 100 animals and plants in the facade. 

Gaudi as Joseph

* All of the people have real faces. She pointed to Joseph and said Gaudi posed for that one. He had to sit with plaster on his face for four hours. 

Picture of musicians for the
musicians in my family

* The baskets of fruit on top of some of the spires were made by a Japanese sculpture who was there earlier that day.

* There are 360 steps to go down from the Nativity Tower (more on that at the end of our tour).

Inside is plainer than the outside. The alter is a replica from a Brazilian family's home.

When I saw the stained glass my first reaction was I did not notice stained glass on the outside. My second was how much different the inside is from the outside.

A tip I learned during the week is that you can go inside Sagrada Familia at 8 am on Sunday mornings to worship. There are no tours, and it would be rude to snap pictures when you should be listening to the priest, but you can do it.

I love the symbolism for these doors. There are 150 languages represented. When the church is finished, this is how you will enter. Next May there is a vote scheduled to decide if the apartment building next door can be knocked down so they can finish what locals consider a "tourist destination" and not a necessary piece of art or a church.

The columns in the sanctuary are in the shape of trees -- homage to Gaudi being influenced b nature. The branches help support the roof.

From 1900-1914 Gaudi lived in a workshop in the church, only leaving to go to church twice a day. He was struck by a trolley and died a few days later while heading to his church, Santa di Marie. 

We crossed through the sanctuary to go outside to see the Passion side, which was built in the 1970s. We passed giant shells that are used as baptism fonts. They were a gift from some country. "Josephine" was such a fast talker I could not keep up with note taking AND picture taking AND absorb what I was seeing.

This side was built in the 1970s under the influence of a different architect. So far, five generations have lived since the project began. That is not unheard of with building major churches.

The Passion story written out on the doors.

Based on a Dali painting -- very controversial at the time

The entire passion story is told on this side of the church.
Reminded me of Stations of the Cross, though "Josephine"
did not use that expression.

We moved over to the side where "Josephine" pointed out a replica of the school Gaudi had built in 1909 next to the church so children could be taught up to age 12 -- a radical idea at the time. The original was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. 

From here we went to the Sagrada Familia museum which is housed under the sanctuary. Inside are many models of Gaudi's vision and some incredible photographs of it being built.

After the museum we decided to go up inside the tower. Back in New Jersey I had the option of the nativity or the passion tower. Again, lack of research made me just choose a side. I was already feeling pressure because we were only in Barcelona for five days and all of the tours in English were sold out for all but the last tour of our last day (yes, we are grateful we could get that), so I didn't want to waste time figuring out which is the better of the two sides. While on our Gaudi tour we told Ross we chose nativity, and he said that is his preferred side because that is the one Gaudi had some influence over. After climbing down the 360-step stone spiral staircase, I wondered what the other side was like.

Before we could go in the elevator, we had to make ourselves as small as possible by putting our belongings in a locker. In order for the lock to work, you had to enter a 2 euro piece, which you would get back when you return to claim your stuff -- like the shopping carts at Aldi. It was a little frustrating to hear this at this point, but the guards were used to these issues and loaned people coins for the lockers. They also pointed out that one euro coins also worked.

The trip begins with a tight elevator ride up about half-way. I suspect the elevator was added after Gaudi's death. Six people fit in the elevator. "Otis," our elevator guide gave the same spiel he gives every couple of minutes -- when you get out there are a couple of stairs, the you walk out on the balcony (the coolest part of the experience) and then walk up more stairs, to then walk over to where you begin climbing down. The climbing down was the hard part -- it was dark and I had visions of missing my step only to tumble down the stairs knocking people over as if they were bowling pins. Towards the end of the experience the French girls behind me (they were speaking French) turned on their phone's flashlight -- brilliant! (In more ways than one)

The views:

As we descended, we continued to snap pictures.

Perhaps the coolest picture of the trip:

One quick look around the sanctuary before leaving for some ice cream. This statue will soon grace the top of the church. When I come back, I wanted a picture to remind myself of its scale.

It felt like a whirlwind tour. If/when I return, hopefully next time I can breathe between bullet points.

One observation we made about this point in the trip is we want to continue to travel while we are young enough / healthy enough to enjoy it -- to be able to climb to the top of that tour, or walk 30,000 steps exploring a city, or eat whatever we wanted to just because it looked good. What an ironic thought since two days later we were bedridden with Covid. Yes, we did wear our masks in the tight confines of the spiral staircase, but not in the wide open sanctuary.

Onto Av. Paral-el to the Apollo Theater to see a show in Spanish.