This is one of the most magnificent buildings I've seen in my life and everyone should go see it even if you're not religious. It's incredible the vision the architect had over 100 years ago.
As others have said the Sagrada Familia is incredible and I had high expectations given all the controversy around it. I've visited many historic churches during my travels and it's my favorite one. Really neat to see it reach this stage.
99% invisible made an amazing episode on this nearly 10 years ago. The story of gaudi, how he died, how the plans of the church were destroyed, and how they're reconstructing the architecture. All that aside, the cathedral is mind blowing.
I visited last month and it is incredibly stunning to see in person. The amazing amount of detail on the facade carvings along with the organic design is something I have not seen on any building. There is what appears to be a Christmas tree topping the front facade.
My only regret is not going inside as it was waaaay too hot to stand in line for hours to get inside. Though I walked around it taking pictures.
Visited Barcelona a decade ago to see this. It's awesome. I often think calling it "kitsch" is some sort of unfortunate linguistic quirk because Antonio Gaudi's name evokes "gaudy."
The thing is a celebration of creation, inventiveness, and natural beauty. Maybe even playfulness - though being a catholic building there's some requisite "death" mixed in: I guess the full spectrum of life is lurking in there.
Visited this a few months ago, somehow having never heard of it as an American (in the way that I learned about Notre Dame and St. Peter’s and Westminster Abbey) and it surpassed the hype far more than any European famous attraction I’ve ever been to.
I first glimpsed it while doing a touristy bike tour my first day in Barcelona and it’s hard to convey how surreal it is, like a video game’s final level glitching into its tutorial stage.
More important, in the nearly hundred and fifty years it has taken for the church to assume its final form, Gaudí’s once revolutionary aesthetic no longer looks futuristic. Early critics of the Sagrada Família accused Gaudí of being too over the top, but his commitment to visual abundance has become a universal aspect of pop culture—think of the ornate C.G.I. cityscapes in “Black Panther” or the “Star Wars” films.
I was never into architecture and am not a religious person but visiting the Sagrada Familia was profound. I came out a slightly different man than one who walked into it just half an hour before. No CGI hack comes close.
I went there over thirty years ago when it was still easy to just walk in without booking or being part of a tour.
One thing that impressed me about it was its effect on others. There were lots of Japanese tourists there at the time. I climbed the stairs up one of the towers with a Japanese man festooned with cameras as usual, I had my SLR with me too. When we got to the top we sat in silence looking out onto the church with it's unfinished roof, neither of us took a single picture. I think both of us were first overwhelmed and then we realized that no picture would capture what we saw and felt. I did take a few pictures of the spiral stairs on the way down, just to have a souvenir of the place.
When I got to the bottom I shovelled all my Spanish coins and notes in the donation box. Perhaps they bought a few kilos of cement with it, I like to think that I helped in an infinitesimally small way to build it.
Never had a worse personal anxiety experience than visiting it 15 yrs ago with my nephews who were 4 and 5yrs old. At the time you could go up elevators on the side of the new facade but you had to walk down spiral staircases on the old side. Those staircases have a huge open circle all the way down to the bottom. I was so worried for those kids. First time I had experienced anything close to parental fear. My brother and my sister in-law on the other hand never seemed phased.
That said. Dying to go back. So much progress has been made since then.
I'd echo everyone else on how awe-inspiring this building is. One thing that's particularly interesting is that, while the outside is extremely cluttered and ornate, the inside is almost spare by comparison, and achieves a level of immersive awe that I've never experienced before.
In that sense, the building is almost too successful - a church is meant to glorify God, but there's no disentangling the Sagrada from Gaudi. You cannot stand in the building and not feel a sense of awe for the mind that created this, and the building is far, far too famous to ever be a servicing church. It was such an interesting contradiction of an achievement - it's such an incredible artistic accomplishment and so successful in its intent to inspire and as an act of devotion that you just cannot look past the finger to see the moon. The artist eclipses the subject.
(As an aside, Orwell makes mention of the Sagrada Familia in Homage to Catalonia, and it's an incredible paragraph: "For the first time since I had been in Barcelona I went to have a look at the cathedral – a modern cathedral, and one of the most hideous buildings in the world... Unlike most of the churches in Barcelona it was not damaged during the revolution – it was spared because of its ‘artistic value’, people said. I think the Anarchists showed bad taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance.")
The Sagrada Família gives me a kind of weird optimism and hope for technology and what it could be. I went to Europe for the first time this year, and I remember repeatedly thinking as I saw buildings like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Duomo in Florence, how sad it is that humanity doesn't build beautiful things anymore (fair enough when they take like 200 years).
Then you see this, a church over 100 years in the making, finally being realised in the last ~10 years because innovations in stone cutting have made these intricate designs more feasible and progress has rapidly improved. It's awesome.
There was a time when architecture was the height of showing off, showing off skill, artistry, etc. I think we build beautiful things today, but they aren't necessarily buildings. Ok, 8½ might not be as impressive as the Sagrada Familia, but it is beautiful all the same.
I was transferring through Barcelona and I didn't intend to spend any time there, so I had done absolutely no research on it.
But the connection was late so we were put on a bus tour of the city, starting with the mountains outside it. The bus let us out at an overlook with a view of the city, which looked more or less like any other far off city.
And then... what the holy hell was that Thing dominating the skyline? It didn't even look real. I had to refocus my eyes just to be able to actually see it.
I never did get to go inside, but we drove past, and the driver explained the history of Sagrada Familia. As bizarre as it was from a distance it's even weirder up close. It looks like something by HR Giger. I dare not imagine what's inside.
it is somewhat sad that we don't start right now any immense scale project requiring decades of construction. With today and tomorrow tech we could possibly build say hundred kilometer long several kilometer high space launch rail gun or something like this.
I just got back from a family vacation there. I was tired that day, it was hot and crowded, and I started thinking, "I wonder if this will be worth it."
I found myself astounded, struck speechless, and moved to tears. I was in awe.
Gaudi is someone we software engineers should revere. He made things precisely and powerfully functional while also making them beautiful.
Do not miss seeing Sagrada Familia if you ever get the chance.
The amazing thing with this church and Barcelona is not the genius of Gaudi.
It's that the city of Barcelona happily let him build his gloriously insane buildings all across town, and on top of that get free reign over the ginormous cathedral project!
Having lived in San Francisco, it seems absolutely unreal...
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 75.2 ms ] threadMy only regret is not going inside as it was waaaay too hot to stand in line for hours to get inside. Though I walked around it taking pictures.
The thing is a celebration of creation, inventiveness, and natural beauty. Maybe even playfulness - though being a catholic building there's some requisite "death" mixed in: I guess the full spectrum of life is lurking in there.
I first glimpsed it while doing a touristy bike tour my first day in Barcelona and it’s hard to convey how surreal it is, like a video game’s final level glitching into its tutorial stage.
That said, if on limited time, definitely see the Sagrada Familia. It was one of my favourite tourist sites in Spain, even beyond just Barcelona.
I was never into architecture and am not a religious person but visiting the Sagrada Familia was profound. I came out a slightly different man than one who walked into it just half an hour before. No CGI hack comes close.
One thing that impressed me about it was its effect on others. There were lots of Japanese tourists there at the time. I climbed the stairs up one of the towers with a Japanese man festooned with cameras as usual, I had my SLR with me too. When we got to the top we sat in silence looking out onto the church with it's unfinished roof, neither of us took a single picture. I think both of us were first overwhelmed and then we realized that no picture would capture what we saw and felt. I did take a few pictures of the spiral stairs on the way down, just to have a souvenir of the place.
When I got to the bottom I shovelled all my Spanish coins and notes in the donation box. Perhaps they bought a few kilos of cement with it, I like to think that I helped in an infinitesimally small way to build it.
That said. Dying to go back. So much progress has been made since then.
Have to go back to see the inside which looks amazing.
In that sense, the building is almost too successful - a church is meant to glorify God, but there's no disentangling the Sagrada from Gaudi. You cannot stand in the building and not feel a sense of awe for the mind that created this, and the building is far, far too famous to ever be a servicing church. It was such an interesting contradiction of an achievement - it's such an incredible artistic accomplishment and so successful in its intent to inspire and as an act of devotion that you just cannot look past the finger to see the moon. The artist eclipses the subject.
(As an aside, Orwell makes mention of the Sagrada Familia in Homage to Catalonia, and it's an incredible paragraph: "For the first time since I had been in Barcelona I went to have a look at the cathedral – a modern cathedral, and one of the most hideous buildings in the world... Unlike most of the churches in Barcelona it was not damaged during the revolution – it was spared because of its ‘artistic value’, people said. I think the Anarchists showed bad taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance.")
Then you see this, a church over 100 years in the making, finally being realised in the last ~10 years because innovations in stone cutting have made these intricate designs more feasible and progress has rapidly improved. It's awesome.
There was a time when architecture was the height of showing off, showing off skill, artistry, etc. I think we build beautiful things today, but they aren't necessarily buildings. Ok, 8½ might not be as impressive as the Sagrada Familia, but it is beautiful all the same.
But the connection was late so we were put on a bus tour of the city, starting with the mountains outside it. The bus let us out at an overlook with a view of the city, which looked more or less like any other far off city.
And then... what the holy hell was that Thing dominating the skyline? It didn't even look real. I had to refocus my eyes just to be able to actually see it.
I never did get to go inside, but we drove past, and the driver explained the history of Sagrada Familia. As bizarre as it was from a distance it's even weirder up close. It looks like something by HR Giger. I dare not imagine what's inside.
I will have to go some day.
I found myself astounded, struck speechless, and moved to tears. I was in awe.
Gaudi is someone we software engineers should revere. He made things precisely and powerfully functional while also making them beautiful.
Do not miss seeing Sagrada Familia if you ever get the chance.
It's that the city of Barcelona happily let him build his gloriously insane buildings all across town, and on top of that get free reign over the ginormous cathedral project!
Having lived in San Francisco, it seems absolutely unreal...