OMG...Gaudi !

Here we are on the final few days of our European Vacation...and we are both exhausted ! We need a rest. We're so glad to have saved Barcelona for last though, it's a wonderful city and has so much to see and experience...all in two days!
So we tried to focus on one thing...Gaudi...and what an eyeful! If you've seen his work you know what I'm talking about...amazing!

Here's Jim with a photo of Gaudi...




Gaudi was a Catalonian architect and much of his work was marked by the four passions of his life: architecture, nature, religion and his love for Catalonia. He meticulously studied every detail of his creations, integrating into his architecture a series of crafts, in which he himself was skilled, such as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging and carpentry. My artist and craftsman friends would love the work here. I'm happy to say I have Catalonian in my family heritage...I'm with my people!




Sagrada Família, is one of the most visited monuments in Spain. Between 1984 and 2005 seven of Gaidi's works were also declared World Heritage Sites.





Rarely did Gaudí draw detailed plans of his works, he preferred to create them as three-dimensional scale models, moulding all details as he was conceiving them in his mind. The workshops and studios are still here and still being used today to work on the completion of the church.







Sketches done by Josep Maria Subirachs, who designed the "Passion Facade" of the church...it's pretty spectacular !




And here is the finished (almost) project, you can see the scale of the Passion Facade here...truly amazing.








These photos do not do justice to the beauty that is here.




Jim steps in as a reference to how big this church is. It holds 1,000 choir members...easily...and will have 4 very large pipe organs when complete. We were lucky to hear a small part of the choir rehearsing while we were there...the sound was heavenly.




The ceiling in the main part of the church. Each circle is a beautiful ceramic tile.




Each stained glass window tells a story...and there are hundreds of them !




Simple tiles that were made by Gaudi to represent the nature and flowers that were on the site when they started building the Sagrada Familia.




When Gaudí died in 1926, the basilica was between 15 and 25 per cent complete, it's planned completion date is 2026, the centennial of Gaudi's death.



Me with one of the turtles holding up an exterior column on the Nativity Facade of the church. Tomorrow we'll check out a few Gaudi houses about town...then we'll be packing up and headed back to our own little tin house... delighted to do so!



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Location:Barcelona, Spain