Gaudi's Sagrada Familia--An Essay in Pictures

Having some time to spare before the madness all begins, I skipped out to Barcelona for the day to visit the infamous Sagrada Familia.  I almost got shot by a few friends the last time I came home without having visited the place--so I thought I'd better give it my dues.  In the end, it was the Sagrada Familia that totally bowled me over.

The first stop for the day was the La Broqueria--the oldest wet market in Barcelona.  I knew I had to get some lunch before I continued any further.  Broqueria is always fun because there're so much to see--both for the wet and dry sections.  It's kinda like the Spanish version of our Chinatown market.  In other words, lots and lots and lots of FOOOOOOOD!!  From fresh, succulent cherries,

to mmmmlicious pang xie pang xie!! Yum yum....

to pristine cod (strangely) kept in cold water.

I even caught an artist doing plein air.  I stood there for a good fifteen minutes--mesmerized.  His name was Juan Bueno--and he held his pen with a loose, strange kind of dexterity only possible to particularly talented artists.  Really amazing.

Spoilt for choice, I settled for pizza in the market.  The hawker had newspaper articles stuck on the front of his oven.  Being the typically well-trained Singaporean sucker, I took it as a sign of culinary expertise.  Unfortunately, I also forgot that only the most desperate hawkers resort to such means.  It was the saltiest pizza I've ever had.

He probably shakes a little of his sweat into his dough.  Marie Pang!  His bad pizza made me miss yours!!

After the salt-overdose, my tongue was quickly turning into sem-bueh.  I sought relief--and came across an old-fashioned Spanish "watercooler".

The accompanying plaque: "In commemoration of the inauguration of the La Merce Festival on the 24th of September, 1959.  These tiles are made from original pieces of pottery from the festival."
La Merce is one of the oldest and biggest festivals in Barcelona, held towards the tail end of September.

Still unsatisfied, I continued looking.  Look who I ran into on the way :)

I settled for a small scoop of strawberry Gelare: EUR1,35.

Mucho gusto (very happy) :)  Damn shiok man!

See the big lids in the foreground? Apparently they serve homemade natural lemonade surplees too. You know this is the real stuff when old locals totter in to parch their wrinkly lips and denture-filled gums.

On a separate note, the big steel canisters reminded me of tau huay hawkers back home.

Satiated--I moved on to the metro to get to Sagrada Familia.  Walked past the biggest... vending... machine...EVER!

Once I got out of the underground metro, I turned around and was stunned with this!

The Spaniards are so psyched about Sagrada Familia that even their dust sheets (picture, centre) have the building's motif embossed on them... high crass ah!

My tickets.

Feeling like an ant.

But still very excited :)

Here, I'm standing in front of the Passion facade of the building--the side the Sagrada that depicts the last hours of Christ--more commonly known as The Passion of the Christ (yes, that's where Mel Gibson lifted it from). The architectural style of the Passion facade is bare and cutting.  All the characters have gaunt, pained facial expressions with sharp edges and finishings.  This stands in stark contrast to the Nativity facade which depicts the birth of Christ--and which has smooth, rounded finishes, coupled with carved symbols of jubilee and life, describing the very life of Christ.

The Passion facade depicts a total of ten elemental moments of the Passion--coupled with amazing details, as of the ones below:

Jesus to Judas the Iscariot: "What you do, do quickly." -John 13:27

Scene on a door depicting Jesus praying at the Garden of Gethsemane.  You can see three disciples sleeping in the background behind/below him.

This square has 310 permutations, that all sum up to 33--the age that Christ died.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." -Revelations 22:13

The doors to the left and right which this pillar holds up, actually have about 33,000 words of the Gospel inscribed in various languages, including Catalan.  Cool phrases include:

Gethsemane

The ever eternal question: "What is truth?"

My favourite answer:

♥ ♥  ♥ ♥ ♥

The inside was simply breathtaking. The pillars from the fore (cream) to the back (maroon) are made of different types of stone, in correspondence with the differing weights of the building it supports.  The central pillar (maroon) are made of the strongest rock to support the tallest tower in the Church--dedicated to Christ.  When completed, this central tower will measure 170 metres tall!


Amazing? :) It is, but notably, the tower will be a metre shorter than Montjuïc--the tallest hill in Barcelona.  Gaudi--a devout Catholic, believed that man's works should never surpass the limits of nature.

One thing amazing about the insides of the Church is the ceiling--the pillars and the extensions to the ceiling are so tall, looming and peaceful--the architecture itself was fashioned in the nature of a forest.  True enough, the details resemble leaves.  With sunlight streaming in, it makes the entire place feel like a forest.  

Despite the dust, the construction, the drills, there came so much peace in just... looking up :)

Everyone was pretty much doing the same thing.  It was so awesome some couldn't keep their mouths closed. Hahahahahha.

Credits to Charles Curling

The stained glass windows followed certain patterns of composition unique to each facade they were facing.  Certain segments of the glasses followed blue compositions to represent water (cleansing), heaven and the Holy Spirit in the bible.  Others had orange or red compositions to signify Christ's passion and humanity.  Most notably, the top and mid-sectioned windows were requested by Gaudi to be left unstained--so as to not  mix the true colour of the tiles and trencadis that coloured the tree boughs on the ceiling.  Similarly, Gaudi wanted the congregation to be bathed in natural light--in order to effect a closer connection to God.

Case in point:)

Spotlight :)

Mid section windows.  Notice how the light naturally falls on the floor?  Now imagine rows and rows of pews.  Gaudi designed the church to hold a congregation of 10,000 (2,000 choir with natural architectural acoustics included!)