Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia.  If you are not familiar with this name, you are not alone.  Quite honestly before we went to Barcelona I had no idea of any historical buildings or even the history of this city.  To be even more honest I still don’t have that much history to share about Barcelona since I’ve been too busy imbibing and stuffing myself with wine and ham.  But we did manage to find a little bit of time in between meals to visit Sagrada Familia, which is a cathedral.  But sooooooo not like any other cathedral you will have ever seen.

Remember Salvadore Dali?  Big artist in the early 19^th century that had weird paintings of clocks melting and other strange items painted in bright colors?  You know, the kind of art that makes you think, “what kind of drugs was he on???”  Well, evidently this kind of art was pretty popular in Barcelona in the mid 19^th-20^th  century.  Another artist, Antonio Gaudy (pronounced “gOWdy”) erected a few buildings that look straight out of Tim Burton’s version of the “Cat in the Hat”.  And evidently, he decided to make his masterpiece in the form of a Roman Catholic Cathedral.  So in 1855, he

began constructing the cathedral.  But he made the main part of the cathedral so gothic looking it almost looks like it’s computer generated.  The strange thing is, over the last few centuries the construction has continued, and continues to this day.  But every extension of the cathedral has a different artistic design to it-some of it is art deco, some is more impressionistic, other parts are just plain odd (seriously, on top of the spires there are designs of FRUIT, and there’s a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the cathedral, which to me seems like quite a slap in the Catholic traditional face as the Church tries to remind people to observe Christmas as a time of Christ, and not so much as a time of revering the pine tree.  But I digress). But the coolest part of this cathedral is that it is still in the construction process.  I often think when I see a mighty cathedral or some other massive building and hear about how long it took to complete it, and often it spans over hundreds of years.  That thought often depresses me because I think, wow, it must suck for the guy who originally thought up the idea ‘cause he never lived to see it finished.  Nor did his son, his grandson, his great-grandson, his great-great-grandson, or his great-great-GREAT grandson.  I mean, seriously, how much would that suck that you’d NEVER know if things were completed?  We know, 300-600 years later, but…?

So to see this work in progress is a cool way for me to see just how long, even in this day and age of technology, a piece of art can really take to be complete.  And even though I feel bad for the guy who started this process in the 1800’s, and his son and grandson and great-grandson, I am appreciative that I can see what they’ve started, and I look forward to seeing it’s completion.

Even if it is just plain odd.  :)