Getting to know Gaudí

Look at these two daredevils crossing against the light... that's dangerous in Barcelona!

First up was Sagrada Família. Oh my--so beautiful! 

Antoni Gaudí was a well known architect in the Modern movement in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Sagrada Família is his best known work and still unfinished. (There's a lot going on there) The church was originally designed by another architect in the neogothic style when Gaudí took over the project. He worked on it for 43 years along with other projects but solely on the Sagrada the last 12 years of his life. Knowing he wouldn't live to complete it, he left very detailed plans in models for the architects who would follow to finish it. Completion is expected to be in 2026, the centennial of Gaudí's death. 

We started off in the tower where we took a tiny elevator up most of the way and then began winding our way down. The tower gave us an up close look at the other towers (and the workers). The detail is unreal as are the views of the Barcelona!

The church is like nothing I've ever seen. It must have seemed so futuristic in the 19th century. Deeply religious, Gaudí brought the scripture and symbolism into every aspect, but it was much different than typical cathedrals of the day. All the religious symbols are present on the exterior of the building but the interior is inspired by nature. The columns and ceiling are designed to look and feel like trees, and the stained glass is set to allow morning and afternoon sun to mimic that of sun and shadows in a forest. Everywhere you look there is more detail, each element intentional.

Since Gaudí's death, other architects have been contracted to complete his work, and he is honored here in many ways. Check out the face on the apostle on the "Passion Facade." It's Gaudí's face, designed by an architect in the 1990's.

He was buried in the Sagrada Familia at his request.

In 1909, during construction, a small school building was erected on the property for children of the workers. 

We continued our Gaudí tour with a visit to Casa Batlló, Gaudí's Magic House. During the industrial boom, wealthy property owners often hired architects to redesign traditional buildings in order to stand out and show off their money. Gaudí was hired by the Batlló family and given free reign to design their home on the first floors, with apartments on the upper floors. It stands in a row of houses designed by notable Modernist architects. The contrast of the different styles is evident when standing in front of them. Casa Batlló is over the top, whimsical as well as cutting edge at the time.

Pictures don't do it justice. We all enjoyed it even more than the Sagrada Familia!

At the end there was a display of a billion pictures of Gaudí's work, plans, and inspiration into and AI light show.

Güell Park: Take 2. The park was originally designed by Gaudí as a small city and features more of his work, including a mosaic terrace I was really looking forward to seeing.

A much nicer day, we set out for the park, a metro ride and a steep climb up the hill. 

Now, I feel like I've really done my research and planning. Somehow I missed that we needed tickets to get into Güell Park, and it was sold out for the day. Not only that, it was €23 to visit. We decided to take in the lower views at the base and then wandered up a trail full of dog walkers. We made friends with a dog off leash, Iggy, and Tony started chatting with his dad about the park, the cost, our lack of tickets. He told us there was a trail that led up to the top point of the hill, above the park, where we could enjoy the views, and he led us up. Thanks, Armando! 

The views were breathtaking, there were no crowds, and we saw a wall of murals instead of the mosaic terrace. 

We had a tapas tour on schedule for dinner.

The tour was great. Our guide, Maria shared a lot of history about Barcelona and our small group was fun. The tapas, sadly, was mediocre. 

We did get to view Gaudí's very first work, a light post in Placa Real, a lamp post!

We made several stops along our tour, the most interesting of which was an outdoor stop with little fried fish and wine from a "porrón," in traditional Catalàn style. 

We have a tiny elevator in our building that Steve doesn't like, so he races us up the 4 floors when we return home. This night he beat us by a mile and popped out when our door opened!