La Sagrada Familia: Part II

The moment I walked into the Basilica de La Sagrada Familia I felt something. I've walked into my fair share of churches before. After seeing so many in Italy and specifically St. Peter's Bascila in Rome-I never thought I'd be in awe over another church ever again. Boy was I wrong. The feeling I had while walking into La Sagrada Familia was different and somewhat hard to explain. It was a mixture of feelings that included excitement, happiness and a sense that I was connecting with something much bigger than I could ever imagine. 

This is what you see when you first walk into La Sagrada. These towering pillars and at at the top are cement branches. Gaudi made the inside of the church resemble a forest. It was hands down one of the most memorable things I could see. I know this is going to sound sappy but I'm telling the truth when I say that what I looked at combined with the feeling inside me had me feeling a little emotional-it literally brought tears to my eyes. 

It wasn't just the tree like towers that were mesmerizing-it was all the colors! 

Gaudi didn't want to decorate the inside of this church with a bunch of paintings or other ornate objects. Instead he turned to nature for inspiration and came up with the idea of using color to decorate inside the church. 

The mosaic windows in the photos above are all side by side on one of the church walls. The colors start off red. This red color has many significant meanings. At 3pm every afternoon, the sun hits the red mosaic windows. When this happens, the entire inside of the church will look red. Our guide said this is supposed to correlate with the time Jesus died while on the cross and the redness that takes place in the church represents the blood that was shed when Jesus died. Next to the red, are colors like orange and yellow. The last colors are green and blue. This last color palette represents heaven and resurrection. Gaudi did a lot with the colors and I liked the way he kept things to a minimum. There is plenty of empty space, which is refreshing for a church. Usually churches fill the walls and other areas with artwork or other decorative materials and it can feel overwhelming. But not in La Sagrada-all you feel is calm and content. 

Another important fact about the colored windows-do you see the circle windows up above in the photos? Each circle has a place written on it. The name of the place is a holy land or place of worship or prayer. The places are in order from around the world. The tour guide told us we might be able to find a place from home on the circle windows. From where I was standing I could see places in Rome and Japan. 

The reason Gaudi choice to include places of worship from all around the world is because he felt strongly about making this church a place of worship for all the people of the world. He believed that there is not just one faith or belief that should be celebrated. He supported all beliefs and wanted anyone, regardless of their religion, to be welcome in La Sagrada. To me, that really speaks about the kind of person Gaudi was. He was a man beyond his years. I loved this the most because it relates to my own beliefs about religion. So many people today hate one another for believing in something different. I don't think there's only one way or one right religion. Gaudi's ability to create a palace of worship for all the people made this basilica one of my favorites. 

These are the doors to La Sagrada. Now, do you remember I said earlier that the main entrance is not finished yet? Well, in 2010 they had to build the doors because the Pope came to bless the church and the Pope must have doors to walk through in order for a church to be considered a church. I didn't know that. 

These doors were done by a different artist. The door has some sort of carving built into it. The actual message is a prayer. Our guide said its one of the most popular prayers about "daily bread."  However, in order to keep with Gaudi's belief that this church was for all the people the artist took this prayer and had it carved in many different languages. And some of the words are raised and painted in gold. The guide encouraged us to identify as many languages as possible. 

Next we went outside and looked at the exterior of the Passion tower. This tower is a little darker and that's because it's about Jesus's death and resurrection. In the photo above you see a statue of Judas. There is a snake at his feet and since snakes have a negative connotation this represents the betrayal Judas does towards Jesus. To the left of Judas you see a square with numbers. It's similar to a sudoku box. If you add all the numbers in any direction they equal 33. There are apparently over 200 ways to add the boxes and get 33. You can add across, backwards, the 4 corners, etc. The significance of this is that Jesus was presumed to be 33 years old when he died on the cross. A different artist did most of the artwork on the Passion tower after Gaudi's death. He was an artist from Japan and the guide said every artist puts a little of themselves into every artpeice. This is why some of these statues have eyes that make them seem of Asian descent. 

Here is Jesus on the cross and a statue below him that has no face and is holding a blanket that has Jesus's face on it. 

The sign above are representations of the alpha and beta signs. 

A photo of Mr. Gaudi 

There is a small museum  built into the church on the side. 

I know this is hard to see but I want to do my best to explain how the architecture for the church was created. Gaudi used arches to create a strong church that would last forever. He hung a sack of weights on a string to make an upside down "U" and continued to do so with multiple weights. Then he took the "U's" and flipped them over to make an arch. These arches were then built and because of the way they were constructed they are able to hold up a large amounts of weight. This model of the Sagrada took Gaudi 19 years to make. It took such a long time because this was way before any fancy electronic architecture tools. He did the entire "blueprint" by hand. 

We also learned that one reason why the tall tree like structures inside the church had a wider base than a top is because it contributes to stabilization of the building. Gaudi looked at the anatomy of the human body for this one. If you stand with your feet shoulder width apart, you are steadier than if you stand with your feet touching together. Gaudi applied this same scenario to the tree structures in order to help them hold up all the weight of the church.  

In the middle alter of the church hangs this artwork. It looks like Jesus on an umbrella. The umbrella has cereal and grapes hanging from it. The cereal was to represent the skin of Jesus and the grapes his Blood-both of which were sacrificed. 

The last part of our visit included an elevator ride to the top of the Nativity tower. We rode all the way to the top and there were a few viewing places to pop your head out and look at the view. 

The people at the park down below looked like little ants. 

You can see all the way to the ocean. 

Inside the tower looking down. 

Instead of waiting for the elevator we decided to walk down the stairs. It was a little scary because the handrail was only on the left. 

I would love to come back when this Basilica is completed. I can only imagine how grand it will be once it's finished. Also, I think all the artists that have worked on the church would make Gaudi proud of their hard work. I hope Mr. Gaudi gets to attend the grand opening of the Basilica in spirit. I have no doubt he will be so happy to see his masterpiece brought to life. 

Next up I'll tell you about our magical fountain adventure-which really was magical!