Barcelona / Light at the Sagrada Familia

I started to write a post about our time in Barcelona before Christmas, actually I started it days ago on the bus from Maine to Boston to catch my flight to Dublin. When my computer wouldn’t upload 53 photos on the bus wifi (go figure), I thought it might make sense to break Barcelona up into a few posts.

I’m going to share where we stayed and ate and caffeinated (very important when Michael is dragging you to tequila restaurants in the evenings!) next week, but for now we’ll start with this incredible cathedral. The Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudi, is still in the process of being completed. In fact, it won’t be completed until the middle of this century! It was absolutely the highlight of our visit and I think you’ll be able to see why. 

We visited the Sagrada Familia in the afternoon, at about 2:30pm, which is just about the time when the sunlight streams through the stained glass windows and turns the whole place into a giant kaleidoscope. It was incredible.  We’ve seen many cathedrals in our travels, as most people have, and I’m always impressed by the workmanship and detail that went into them. But the design of the Sagrada Familia was just so different from anything I’d ever seen or imagined. I just think Barcelona was so ahead of its time when it agreed to let Gaudi design so many of their buildings! He was a crazy genius, to say the least. 

There is another artist, Joan Vila-Grau, to thank for the stained glass that flooded the Sagrada Familia with that incredible light. The work on the stained glass only started in 1999, and I think it adds so much atmosphere and magic to the building. 

The architecture was much more geometric and more naturally-inspired than traditional cathedrals. The columns reminded me of stalactites and stalagmites in a cave.

Meanwhile, the outside of the Sagrada Familia has always reminded me of those sandcastles you can make by dripping wet sand into little towers. Up close, it’s more intricate than that and it’s hard to believe real humans carved those shapes from stone. 

Michael booked us tickets to climb one of the towers, the Nativity Tower, which is supposed to be more the picturesque of the two towers because it’s on the more finished side of the cathedral. And the theme was fitting because it was just before Christmas. Honestly, we couldn’t see that much of the structure itself, but we could see this amazing view of the city all the way down to the water!

You need to book tickets in advance, but you don’t have to print them. You can just use the barcode on your phone, which saves a lot of trouble. If you’re going to Barcelona, absolutely, definitely plan to visit the Sagrada Familia, just try to organise some sunshine for your arrival!