It's So Gaudi

Today was about exploring Antoni Gaudi, and his amazing works. Tomorrow will be as well. We set out and did a large walk to the Sagrada, then up to Park Guell, and then hopped on a metro to Spanish village and got a great view of the city of Barcelona. 

Gaudi said that mans creation shouldn't be larger than Gods. Thus the Sagrada WILL be one metre shorter then the mountain in Barcelona. Which is absolutely crazy as it is already such a large building. Hard to imagine it being any taller. It is absolutely breathing taking place. So unique with an insane amount of details that have already been put into, with many more to come. It is over 50% complete. We read that by 2026 they will have most of it finished, meaning the towers will be completed and up, and 6-10 years later, the fine details will be complete and the church will be finished. Which will mark the century of Gaudis' death. At the time of his death, he had been completely devoted to the building of the church, 14 years of devotion before he passed. Apparently he was a complete genius. 

 

The inside is suppose to represent a forest. Gaudi was big on having just the right light entering into the church. From many stain glass windows, and other small windows around creating with atmosphere that it has. There are so many details in it that I can't even begin to explain how it looks on the inside. It can hold up to 8,000 people during a service. He wanted to make a church that anyone could go into, no matter the religion or faith and no matter what social status. 

 

There are some incredible details that can be seen everywhere you look. Pictures cannot begin to capture what can be seen. 

 

You could spend hours just taking everything in and each time you look around you would notice something you hadn't before. To the writings in the stain glass, to the writings written in plain sight, there is always a new piece of design to notice. Below is what the final product should look like. The centre spir represents Jesus. In the end there will be a spir for each of the twelve disciples, Mary, and the four evangelists. The progress that will be seen when the final towers are placed will be incredible. Luke read somewhere that at some point, he thinks when all is said and done, Gaudi will be sainted. Or made a saint for the work that he had done and the legacy of a church he has left. 

 

This is Luke in the basement of the Church, not the crypts, the part where they show you how they are making it. You can see he is in his natural habitat, as he was ducking and getting closer and viewing different angles. He was looking at how they make the grooves, for lack of a better word, the indents in the walls and outer pieces, They even have a model that they are making as a replica, that has a ratio of 1:25 that you can see the progress of. The making of that alone is cool to see as you see many more details that are to high to be seen up close. There has already been the need for reconstruction on the outer walls as it has already been so many years it was needed. On the Spirs that are for now the tallest there is so much detail put into it. When Gaudi was asked why it would be that way when no one can see it, he replied that the Angels can. 

 

On top of this incredible structure we went to Spanish village, and got a view of Barcelona from many different vantage points. We saw where the Olympics were held in '92 and had a debate on whether it was the summer or winter. As we know in '88 Calgary had the winter, so it only made sense that Barcelona held the winter as well, but for some reason it also didn't make sense. We have since looked it up and indeed Barcelona held the summer olympics in '92. Apparently in 1992 there was both the winter and summer olympics. The summer was held in Barcelona. Up until the '92 olympics both summer and winter games were held in the same year, but in different cities, after '92 the started to alternate every 2 years. This was new information to us. They made the decision in '86 but didn't end up on switching it until '92. So... There you go. This is their arena and monument at the Olympic grounds.

 

Today was full of a number of selfies, proudly not using a selfie stick but good old fashion point and shoot camera facing the opposite way. Selfie sticks though are quite popular as not only every vendor sells them, many many many people are walking around holding and using them.

 

So here's some more selfies as we recognize you might be missing our faces. :)

 

Was a good day today with many sights seen as we were walking through the streets of Barcelona. There was more to be said, but my fingers can't type as fast as my scattered brain thinks so this is all that we get for today.

And so the adventure continues...