Guide to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

SAGRADA FAMILIA

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Our recent stay in Barcelona was a whirlwind affair over a few short days but top of the list to be seen was the Sagrada Familia or Church of the Sacred Family, Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece is still under construction some 136 years after it was begun. "My client (God) is not in a hurry," Gaudi was fond of replying to anyone curious about the timetable for the completion of his mammoth undertaking. The Sagrada Familia was begun in 1882 under architect Francesco Villar who passed it to Gaudi in 1891 after arguing with the church officials of the day and is hoped to be completed in 2026 which marks the centenary of Gaudi's death. Gaudi died at age seventy-three after he was hit by a tram on his way from the Sagrada Familia to the parish church where he attended services every evening. The architect's body was not identified for several days after the accident as his impoverished looking body was mistaken for a tramp.

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Looming over Barcelona like some giant prehistoric gargoyle the sheer immensity of the site and the energy flowing from it is staggering. Sagrada Familia has become a kind of circus attraction in which it is now almost impossible to detect the hand of its original creator and although being an undeniably impressive building seems to have lost it's "religiosity" if there's such a word. It has just broken a new record, becoming the first attraction in the world to get more than 100,000 traveller reviews on TripAdvisor and is by far the number one most visited site in Barcelona.

Although classed as a master architect Gaudi was not without his more "unusual" ways of gaining inspiration. He had a donkey hoisted up the facade of the church, to see how it would look in a sculpted nativity scene. He made plaster casts of temporarily anaesthetised turkeys and chickens and for realism he also took moulds of stillborn babies so he could model the Massacre of the Innocents facade. In the interests of spiritual research, he attended a death at a hospital and claimed he could see the moment when the soul of the departed met the holy family.

It would be accurate to say very few architects have been able to make stone look so fluid and malleable. With his avoidance of straight lines and right angles and his tree-like columns reiterate Gaudi's belief that his design should follow nature. The fusion of stained glass windows with stonework, the integration of structural and ornamental design coupled with the frenzied genius that drove Gaudi to do strange things with comatose turkeys and dead babies will probably not be replicated soon, if ever, again.

Tips for visiting Sagrada Familia would include pre-booking times and any extra add-ons like going to the top of one of the towers which will save you joining what appears to be an immovable queue at the ticket window. Just keep an eye out for the Ticket Holders entrance to jump the queue. Online tickets via the official website, HERE, are supposed to be cheaper than third party booking sites. For 29 Euros you get access to one of the towers, either the Nativity facade or the Passion facade end of the building. We visited the Nativity facade end but not sure which is any better, we were very pleased with our experience anyway. Once inside you can stay as long as you want to try to get that perfect pic with a minimal amount of people in the shot, also keep in mind that most of the day tours visit during the morning.

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