Sagrada Familia

One of the very first things we went to see the first morning we were in Barcelona was Sagrada Familia. In 1882 work on Sagrada Familia started. In 1883, Antonio Gaudi was commissioned to carry on the work and continued until his death in 1926. When I visited it in 1971 the overall structure was there; since then much more has been built and it was consecrated by the Pope in 2010; completion is projected for 2026, the centenial of Gaudi's death.

  
        Many years ago                                                current (with cranes digitally removed)

We spent several hours there; there are endless things to see.  We didn't go up in the towers - next time...  There was lots of construction activity outside and inside - we watched some workers installing stained glass. There is a workshop in the basement with lots of more interesting things in it.

Click here for some of my pictures

Some more about Sagrada Familia

Here's a look inside:

Down in the workshop there were models of components, drawings, sculputres of Gaudi himself and a lot of information about how Gaudi studied various natural formations such as beehives, plants, etc. and various geometric constructions to get ideas and work out design details.

Click here for some pictures