Barcelona has many beautiful sights, and isn’t short on architectural wonders. Many of those were designed by Antoni Gaudi. His Sagrada Família Basilica is unlike any building in the world. From a distance, it seems impossibly ugly.
But somehow it gets more beautiful the closer you get. Then once you get inside… simply incredible. Here’s what it looks like up close.
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You need tickets in advance. I found this out the hard way. You can wait in line at the gate, but there’s no guarantee they’ll have tickets available even for the next day. Far easier to just buy them online. Generally you can get them a day or two in advance (depending on the season), but spots to go up in the spires are often booked a month in advance.
The entrance is on the east side, the Nativity façade. Expect crowds.
One of the many things that makes the Sagrada Família unique is how radically different each side is. The Nativity façade, as you can see, is ornately gothic. Figures crowd the surface, almost impossibly dense. It lends a false impression the whole basilica will look like this, but that expectation changes radically once you enter.
The ceiling looks like it was carved from a single piece of stone, in angry, sharp angles. Or perhaps it’s the inside of a cave, with abstract stalactites hanging like daggers.
From my Instagram. Photo Credit: Geoffrey Morrison
Really, it just defies description.
Then there are the windows. Stained glass not assembled to create a picture, but to paint the interior with light.
In the morning, the rising sun shines through the blue and green glass. In the afternoon, when I was there, the setting sun strikes the red and orange panes on the west façade, igniting the interior:
From my Instagram. Photo Credit: Geoffrey Morrison
Exiting to the west, the Passion façade is a stark contrast to the Nativity façade. It lacks any of the ornate decorations, relying instead on the visual power of sweeping arches, straight lines, and angular figures. It’s as modern as the Nativity façade is Gothic.
I sadly wasn’t able to go up in the spires on my visit. Book well in advance if you can!
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More than anything, the Sagrada Família is a modern interpretation of a classic cathedral. It has the size of those grand buildings, but with designs, ideas, and features no medieval architect could have dreamed of. Given the likely 150 years of construction, it seems Gaudi dreamed more than was even technically possible in his lifetime.
Spain is full of beauty, but no building there or anywhere comes close to the Sagrada Família. Simply amazing.
