Monday, January 09, 2006

Castles made of sand

I wonder if Gaudí ever made drip castles. (You know, drip castles: You take a handful of wet sand at the beach and let it drip out of your hand to make a wet, bumpy sand castle.) They're what the Sagrada Familia reminds me of. The Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) is Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece, whose construction began in 1882 and is scheduled to finish sometime around 2040. It's amazing, it really is. Very ornate and detailed, parts are very colorful, it's really tall. You can go up inside some of the towers: a steep climb up a narrow spiral staircase with lots of little nooks and incredible views. It's really windy up there, and I got a little vertigo-y coming down. Like I said, it's amazing. BUT.... It's very unfinished. The inside is nothing but a construction site, and entire sides of the outside are still unfinished. They have photos of its construction on display, and it doesn't look much more done now than it did in 1904. The part that is mostly done, the Nativity Facade, is breathtaking and should absolutely be seen before you die. But the good thing about photographs is they cut out all the construction.... I just wasn't quite as blown away by it as I thought I'd be, that's all. Go ahead, call me base and unrefined; I can take it.

3 Comments:

At 5:54 AM, Blogger Shane said...

You're base and unrefined. Also, I was at Sagrada Familia a few years ago, and I'm pretty sure that the public washrooms were added after 1904 (though not much after 1904).

 
At 11:22 AM, Blogger Sam said...

Apparently there was some sort of break-in I think in the 1930's. A lot of the models and plans were stolen or destroyed, which explains some of the slowness. Also, the Catholic Church is considering (don't know how seriously) beatifying Gaudi. I wonder what his miracles were (does the church count as a miracle?).

 
At 2:35 PM, Blogger nelson said...

The miracle was that some guy converted to Catholicism after being in the Sagrada Familia. But you have to check out the details of this story.

 

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