Adventure is Out There: La Basilica de Sagrada Familia: Part I

Before I wrote this post, I had to seriously think about what words I was going to use and what tone I wanted this post to have. I hope my words do this basilica the justice it deserves. You should also know, that I am not a very religious person. I consider myself to be a student of religions, which means I really enjoy learning about religion but I'm not a religious person in the sense that I practice or preach any one specific religion. I do feel very spiritual and I believe in higher beings. If someone demanded I classify myself into one category I would say I'm a Christian. However, I have always loved the teachings and followings of Buddhism and if I have the opportunity to learn about any other religion I'm usually all ears. Now onto the post.

The Basilica de la Sagrada Famila was rated as one of the must see attractions in Barcelona. While I was doing my planning, I got a little lazy toward the end. So I didn't have too much pre-booked for Spain. This was a good thing though because those of us that were still abroad were getting tired and lazy afternoon siestas were very welcome at this point in the trip (and encouraged since its part of the culture). A tour of this basilica was the only pre-booked activity we had planned. Booking this tour was very complicated. There were different options: admission into the basilica only, admission and a tour, admission with a tour and access up to one of two towers (The Passion or Nativity towers). If you chose one of the last two options you had to pick specifc times and the times had to be so many minutes apart so I had to keep refreshing the webpage and starting over. I was able to get us the student discounted price for the admission, tour and tower visit option which saved us a few bucks. We all have student IDs and technically I'm a student of life, so it counts.

Prior to walking into the basilica, all I knew about it was the following: it was a project of an artist named Gaudi and it was a must see attraction. That's it. I honestly knew next to nothing about Gaudi before this. I knew he spent time in Barcelona and that his artwork and presence is popular in the city and with the locals. I'd never seen any of his artwork prior to this and I didn't know anything about him. Then we walked up to the basilica.

It was HUGE. So big and massive. There was a ton of construction cranes all around it and some of the tower was wrapped up. I thought maybe they were doing renovations (another indicator that I had no idea what I was about to see). We hardly had any wait time since we had prepurchased tickets (I know I sound like a broken record, but if you don't purchase tickets online than you're asking to wait and wait and wait in lines for the duration of yor trip). We only had to clear security. Then we found our tour guide who gave us each an audioguide (earphones so we can listen to the tour guide talk).

Our tour was one hour long and so full of information. There were some young children in our tour group and the guide was amazing at relating the information to the youngsters while at the same time engaging adults.

First, our tour guide starts by introducing us to the concept of what this church is all about. Gaudi was not the original architect for this project. The first architect chosen did most of the foundation before Gaudi took over. Now, what you need to know about Gaudi is he really loved nature. He always went into nature to feel closer to God. And most of his artwork reflected nature. Also, another very important fact about Gaudi is that every single thing he did in his artwork had a purpose. I liked this fact about Gaudi because it reminds me of my outlook on life. I'm a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. Every bad day, every good moment, all of it-there's a purpose for it. We may never know what that purpose is but there is a reason for it.

The tour guide went on say that Gaudi envisioned a huge basilica to be built in Barcelona. He wanted the church to belong to everyone and not to any government or specifc group of people. This is one of the reasons the church is still not complete. Gaudi had to raise money to fund the construction of this masterpiece. Also, once Gaudi realized that the Basicilica would not be finished during his lifetime he still refused to change anything. He didn't rush any part of the process. He realized that other artists would complete where he left off. That's why there are cranes at the site of this Bascila. It's still a work in progress. The goal is to finish this church by the year of 2026-which will be 100 years after Gaudi's death. In the meantime, the profits from the ticket sales all contribute to the building of the Sagrada Familia in addition to any donations made by people of the community. The ticket we received says on the back "by purchasing this ticket you have helped build La Sagrada Familia. It is your church." Gaudi wanted everyone to have access to the Basilica. He didn't want this place to only be for those that were wealthy. He wanted the entire community to have the ability to come here and feel something when they walked in.

Our guide walked us over to a model of what the final version of the basilica will look like. It will eventually have a totall of 18 towers: 12 dedicated to the apostles, 4 to the evangelists and the last two dedicated to Jesus and Mary. There are currently 4 towers completed and the Mary tower is currently under construction. You can see based on the model that this Basilica still has a long way to go before completion. Our guide also told us that the name means something special as well. La Sagrada Familia translates to the Holy Family. So the name of this place is The Church of the Holy Family.

Now our guide shows us the outside entrance to the church of the Nativity tower. This will not be an entrance once the church is completed. However, since the main entrance has not really been built yet they have two entrances-the Nativity and Passion entrances.

The Nativity side is so full of life. And there are many images of the Holy Family on this side.

You can see the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph and Jesus) in the middle and a variety of religious figures surround them (apostles). There's also some animals there as well. Again, Gaudi loved nature. But these animals that surround the Holy Family have a positive and happy connotation. There are some donkeys and a horse.

These stone figures to the side of the entrance look like dedicated followers. These statues were modeled after real people. Gaudi loved to use real people as his models. He would ask them for a donation, any amount, and in return he promised to use them as a model in the artwork. Recently, a young visitor told the tour guide that her grandmother claimed to have been one of the models her entire life. She said that Gaudi asked her to pose with her body turned in such a way and her hands clasped together. It looks exactly like the statue in the picture above in the middle.

The last thing the tour guide told us about the outside of the exterior on the Nativity side is that the two pillars on the side of the entrance each have a turtle that hold up the pillars-again Gaudi loved nature and the turtles are a representation of nature holding up the church. Nature is the foundation of this church.