La Sagrada Família, Barcelona - a photo on Flickriver

After a guided tour of Barcelona by coach (in the rain), our tour guide took us for a scheduled visit to the Sagrada Familia, at about 12:30pm CEST (we arrived a bit early). After queuing up, and getting through airport style security, we were giving a earphones set and a listening device.

These views from waiting in the queue in the rain before heading in via the security area.

Sagrada Família

The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (Catalan: [səˈɣɾaðə fəˈmili.ə]; Spanish: Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia; "Expiatory Church of the Holy Family") is a large unfinished Roman Catholic church in Barcelona. Designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), his work on the building is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church and proclaimed it a minor basilica.

In 1882, construction of Sagrada Família began under architect Francisco DE Paula Del Villa. In 1883, when Villa resigned, Gaudí took over as chief architect, transforming the project with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted the remainder of his life to the project, and he is buried in the crypt. At the time of his death at age 73 in 1926, when he was run down by a tram, less than a quarter of the project was complete.

Relying solely on private donations, Granada Familiar's construction progressed slowly and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. In July 1936, revolutionaries set fire to the crypt and broke their way into the workshop, partially destroying Gaudí's original plans, drawings and plaster models, which led to 16 years work to piece together the fragments of the master model. Construction resumed to intermittent progress in the 1950s. Advancements in technologies such as computer aided design and computerized numerical control (CNC) have since enabled faster progress and construction past the midpoint in 2010. However, some of the project's greatest challenges remain, including the construction of ten more spires, each symbolising an important Biblical figure in the New Testament. It is anticipated that the building can be completed by 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.

The basilica has a long history of splitting opinion among the residents of Barcelona: over the initial possibility it might compete with Barcelona's cathedral, over Gaudí's design itself, over the possibility that work after Gaudí's death disregarded his design, and the 2007 proposal to build a tunnel of Spain's high-speed rail link to France which could disturb its stability. Describing Sagrada Família, art critic Rainer Zerbst said "it is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art", and Paul Goldberger describes it as "the most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages".

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Taken in: Spain / Catalonia / Barcelona (show map)

Taken on: May 17, 2019

Tags:

Barcelona

Catalonia

Spain

España

UNESCO

World Heritage Site

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Carrer de Mallorca

Sagrada Família

Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família

Minor basilica

Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia

large unfinished Roman Catholic church

Francisco de Paula del Villar

Antoni Gaudí

Works of Antoni Gaudí

Gaudi

rain

raining

spire

spires

scaffolding

crane

cranes « less

Sets appears in: • Sagrada Familia, Barcelona • Barcelona

Groups appears in: • Cranes • Spires more » • La Sagrada Familia « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ72, f/4.2, 1/640 sec, 11.8mm, ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-FZ72
Aperture:	f/4.2
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	11.8mm
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	-0.33 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.0
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