At least once in your life, visit the Sagrada Família. As you approach, don't look up to it. It's tempting, but wait. Keep walking until you're right in front of it. Then look up. You'll be staring at the most stunning building ever made by human hands: the scale, the intricacy, the stonework.
Go inside. It’s worth it. The light is beautiful, and the architecture rewards unhurried attention. Take your time to wander, don't rush.
One hundred and fifty years in the making, and still unfinished. The two completed façades serve as the "secondary" entrances; the main entrance is yet to be built. Completing the project will require demolishing four city blocks, a plan that is controversial and complicated because people live there. Many of those residents bought at lower prices with a clause acknowledging this; when the Sagrada Família is finished, they will have to leave.
When I found out I am going blind, I traveled around Europe solo for a summer and I found myself at La Sagrada Familia...once inside I almost cried because the light was so beautiful. And finding a special spot to just sit and enjoy an espresso on a sunny day with it in the background is blissful. I'm not religious at all, but many of the nicest buildings throughout my travels were places of worship.
I think it might be because places of worship have a function that is nowhere else to be found: a place for introspection.
Where a city is usually all entertainment and shops, a place for true rest and just enjoying the places is far rarer. Although some cities are wising up and creating more of those places in city planning.
Same here. On the other hand I think it is just how some people are. I do not appreciate art, and can live happily without music. Art in general, never gives me any profound experiences. Books on the other hand, now we're talking! Political performance art, also entertaining.
Idk if you ever shared this view with art people. It must have been hard because there is a sort of obligatory necessity that people MUST like art embedded into their worldview.
But also, there is a basic universality of art, and I wonder where it comes from, and what would make some people into it, and others, like you, not into it.
For some, it’s the sheer grandeur and architectural splendor. Strasbourg, Chartres, Cologne or Rouen Cathedrals, with their scale and delicate designs, often stand out.
For others, it’s the spiritual resonance of a place. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela has stirred something deeper within, but maybe that was just me. I experienced the same with Lourdes and Le Puy-en-Velay in France because they carried something that felt "sacred" and transformative, not only from the buildings but the actual place.
Then there are those who value historical or religious authority. Cathedrals like St. Peter’s in Rome or the Papal Palace in Avignon have that kind of symbolic weight, and I assume some would favor them over the more "profane" work of Gaudi.
As I wrote in another comment, I think the Sagrada Familia is a worthy successor for the grand gothic cathedrals you mentioned, because Gaudí made the most out of late 19th century technology, same as the medieval builders made the most out of the technology available at their time. I mean, just look at those branching columns: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia#/media/Da... But, to each his own.
I would like to add two (former) churches to your list: the Hagia Sophia (it's really humbling to think that it was already standing for 900+ years when the Turks conquered Constantinople 500+ years ago) and the Pantheon in Rome, which despite being several centuries older, had the largest dome in the world for more than 1000 years.
St Peter's Basilica is probably the most mind-blowing for me, even just because of the scale. The intricate facade of the Duomo in Milano, the green and while marble exteriors of the Duomo in Firenze, the (neoclassical?) architecture of St Paul's, the unusualness of St Francis of Assisi, Notre Dame (haven't gone back after the fire yet), the bright golden interiors of pretty much any Orthodox church,... Hagia Sophia if I may stretch the definitions a bit :)
I am not remotely religious, but I cried when I saw the inside. It is awe-inspiring in every sense of the word. It wasn't so much the objective quality I think, more that I was _surprised_ by how beautiful it was. The outside is, like others have said, somewhat kitschy, a little dated, more like an theme-park stoner version of a church. It just didn't connect with me, but the purity of the beauty inside just completely shook me to my core. Pictures do not capture it at all.
Yeah, this is really a building that you have to experience yourself, words and pictures don't do it justice. Gaudí is a worthy successor to the unknown masters who built the great gothic cathedrals: like them, he used the technology of his time to maximum effect. If you see all those towers from the outside and then go in, you're bound to wonder how the church can be so spacious on the inside. But somehow, it works...
First, small detail: "família" is not Spanish but rather Catalan. In Spanish it's "familia".
As for Sagrada Familia / Familia Sagrada: putting the adjective before the noun is sometimes done in Spanish to reinforce the importance of the adjective. "La blanca nieve" places focus on the color of the snow while "la nieve blanca" focuses on the snow itself.
> One hundred and fifty years in the making, and still unfinished.
The explanation behind this is usually the Spanish civil war, and then it's how the construction is funded by donations. The latter brings in a cynical twist, because the argument to keep the money flowing in ends the moment the cathedral is deemed finished. So you have a perverse incentive to stall the construction because once it's done then the whole economy around it will end as well.
Taking so long to finish it is not the badge of honor that's depicted. The project is just as complex as when it was when Gaudi died.
> There’s no “done, so we don’t need money any more”
Supposedly this happened to Paris' Notre Dame for many years until Victor Hugo published The Hunchback of Notre-Dame which re-ignited it in the general public's imagination.
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Go inside. It’s worth it. The light is beautiful, and the architecture rewards unhurried attention. Take your time to wander, don't rush.
One hundred and fifty years in the making, and still unfinished. The two completed façades serve as the "secondary" entrances; the main entrance is yet to be built. Completing the project will require demolishing four city blocks, a plan that is controversial and complicated because people live there. Many of those residents bought at lower prices with a clause acknowledging this; when the Sagrada Família is finished, they will have to leave.