La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia is one of Gaudi’s most famous works in Barcelona.

This gorgeously macabre Gothic cathedral, designed in the 1880s by celebrated Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí, is Barcelona’s most famous tourist site. La Sagrada Família is constructed of stones and rocks, and the jumbled way they’re pieced together resembles a melting house of wax or mineral deposits inside a psychedelic, stalagmite-rich cave. Situated at the end of a bustling city street lined with cafés and shops, the towering cathedral appears to have been plucked from a fantasy animation flick, with its cavern-like nooks and crannies, decorated with gargoyles and monsters and columns that completely ignore the right-angle-to-the-floor norm.

Gaudi played an active role in directing the construction of the Sagrada Familia until his death in 1926. He would often request that work be modified and adjusted until it was exactly what he had in mind. However today, because of the nature of the existing designs, his work is partly open to interpretation.

Interpretation of the ordinal designs by present day architects is particularly challenging because the actual construction stones are irregularly shaped.

The building is still under construction so be prepared to see a lot of work continuing when you visit. However this in itself is interesting, especially if you visit the museum inside the building. There you will see the stone masons at work carving stones to be used in the building.