ViaggiDiDolce: La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia (or the Basilica of the Holy Family) is a spectacular unfinished Catholic cathedral in Barcelona begun by Antoni Gaudi in 1882. This building is his masterpiece and it shows off splendidly his Art Nouveau architecture style. He worked on the cathedral until his death in 1926, but it is still a work in progress. It is anticipated to be completed by 2030.

This cathedral is a complete original -- it is so detail-oriented and intricate, but also very modern. It is a very different take on a cathderal than the typical European cathedral. By design, everything you see means something. Gaudi put in an insane amount of time and energy into making every detail of the cathedral have meaning.

His general goal was to tell the story of the life of Jesus and the history of the Catholic faith. The 3 main facades of the church show the birth of Jesus, his death and resurrection and the place of man within the natural order. One example of the great details here are the turtles at the bottoms of the columns. They symbolize the stability of the cosmos -- the one closer to the sea is a sea turtle and the one close to the mountains is a land tortoise. Even the gargoyles in La Sagrada Familia are unique -- they look like they are not guarding the cathedral but rather escaping from it. They actually look like the little lizards in our neighborhood that scurry away every time we walk down the street. Clearly that was Gaudi's inspiration...You will also see a cipher on the wall which is very familiar to fans of "Lost." They actually contain Hurley's "numbers" -- spooky, right?!?

The inside is just as stunning as the outside. Again, it looks no other cathedral you have ever seen. There are numerous gorgeous, modern stain glass windows. There are going to be 4 large organs -- one at each end of the cathedral. Around the entire perimeter is a balcony where the choir will stand. It has been created to maximize the sound inside, which means that a concert there should be out of this world.