One Of My Favorite Things In Spain by Ella

by guest blogger Ella

One of my favorite sights that I saw in Spain was the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. I had seen a few other cathedrals but right as I walked in I was put in a state of awe. Unlike the other cathedrals that were build a little bit in the state of fear, the Sagrada Família was firmly and solely built based on the state of joy and hope. As soon as I walked in I was blinded by the rainbow of colors displayed from the stained glass as the sun shone through. The way Gaudí used the stained glass everywhere and in a rainbow sort of drew your eyes to the altar or wherever the stained glass was. One of the other many beauties in this cathedral was the columns leading up to the altar. They were designed to look like tree trunks so each one was a different type of stone and different shapes and sizes. Gaudí is famous for a love of nature so of course he incorporates it into his work. The ceiling is also in a way connected to the trees because as you look up it is almost as if you are looking up through a blossoming tree that is growing up from the roots of the pillars and up in the sky.

Another cool fact about the Sagrada Família is if you look on one side of the Cathedral you will see the nativity side where Jesus Christ was born. This side kind of has a sandcastle look to it. Also this side has so much detail and not one edge is flat. The other side looks like a completely different cathedral, it even is a different type of stone! This side is called the Passion, it shows where Christ was crucified on the cross. The Passion side has more of a modern look to it and has almost all straight edges and it was a lot plainer than the Nativity side.

The construction for the Sagrada Família started on March 19^th, 1882 and is still being built to this day. It is expected to be completed by 2026, 100 years after Gaudí’s death in 1926. He was buried in a crypt under the Sagrada Família. After Gaudí passed, a man named Domenech Suaranyes took over the construction until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War when the construction was put to a halt. The Sagrada Família has a long and amazing history and I hope that if you ever go there you will appreciate it as much as I did!