Sagrada Família

Antoni Gaudí never saw the Sagrada Família finished, and neither will anyone alive today who first saw it as a child. Work began in 1882 under another architect, Gaudí took over the project the following year, and from the 1910s he gave it almost all of his attention. He died in 1926 after being struck by a tram and is buried in the crypt. The building has since been paid for largely by donations and entrance tickets, and construction continues in the Eixample district of Barcelona, so the scaffolding and cranes are part of the picture. It is one of Europe’s most visited monuments. Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church as a minor basilica in 2010.

The exterior is a set of three very different façades. The Nativity façade, the only one substantially completed in Gaudí’s lifetime, is crowded with sculpted plants, animals and scenes from the birth of Christ. The Passion façade on the opposite side is deliberately severe, with angular, skeletal figures by the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs. A third, the Glory façade, faces the main entrance side and belongs to the later stages of the building. Eighteen towers are planned in all, the tallest dedicated to Jesus Christ, and the cluster of spires is what gives the skyline its recognisable outline.

Inside, Gaudí abandoned the usual Gothic buttresses and designed branching columns that rise and split like tree trunks, carrying a vaulted ceiling studded with geometric openings. The effect resembles a forest canopy. The stained glass is arranged by colour: cooler blues and greens on one side, warm reds and oranges on the other, so the light moves across the stone through the day and changes with the hour. Many visitors find the morning or late afternoon the best time to see it.

The style belongs to Catalan Modernisme, the regional counterpart of Art Nouveau, but Gaudí took it far past decoration. He studied natural forms and worked out structure with hanging chain models and ruled geometric surfaces. The crypt and the Nativity façade are part of the UNESCO listing for the Works of Antoni Gaudí.

Tickets are sold for timed entry and fill up early, so booking ahead is sensible, and the official site lists current slots and the towers and audio guide options. The metro station Sagrada Família sits beside the basilica. Nearby sights in the city that show more of Gaudí’s range include Casa Batlló and Park Güell, and the contrast between this unfinished, still-working construction site and those complete works is one of the best ways to understand his career.