Monday 24th April 2023
We love Gaudi, we visited Sagrada Familia 20 years ago when it was almost completely scaffolded inside and out. In 1883 Gaudi spent the last 12 years of his life completely devoted to his great vocation, serving God through architecture. The cathedrals progress was interrupted by his early tragic death and several wars. We discovered on our visit that it is still not finished. 2026 is now the expected completion date. On completion it will have 18 towers, the talent in the center dedicated to Jesus Christ. This not being as high as the highest mountain in the area and in his own words “the work of man should not surpass the work of God”
What can we say about it? It took our breath away 20 years ago and it took our breath away today. The light from the stained glass windows was amazing and forever changing depending on the weather. The towering pillars reaching for the roof supporting the whole structure are intended to represent the natural environment of a forest. We could go on…
The Park Guell started off as a housing project, on the slopes above the city, by a catalan entrepreneur Eusebi Guell. He gave the assignment of drawing the plans to Gaudi. Restrictive building conditions would only allow 1/6 th of the plot for houses so it became a park with many buildings and features in typical Gaudi style. It became a municipal park in 1926. Barcelona residents can access the park for free at certain times of the day. Gaudi was inspired by the colours and shapes of nature but gave them his own twist. The park wasn’t as big as we expected, and all the main Gaudi buildings were mainly grouped in one area around the entrance. We loved the colours, shapes and mosaics and offered spectacular panoramic views over the city of Barcelona
As our intended bus was full, and we had to wait 2 1/2 hours till the next one we saw a bit more. If you think Paris is the only one with an arch think again. Barcelona has an Arc de Triomf which was built in 1888 as a gateway to a universal exhibition. We had our own exhibition from a worn which was dancing to the music of a clarinet. We found a lovely restaurant playing jazz music. Bernie our waiter served us a lovely meal. On our walk back to the bus station we discovered it had a beautiful facade. The journey home was mainly in the dark but Max was waiting patiently at the car park to take us back to our apartment where we were greater by a Mum Boar and 3 babies.