The Country Mice

When I first mentioned to someone I was headed to Barcelona and asked what I should see she replied, “Gaudi, Gaudi, Gaudi.”

Well, I must confess to all my enlightened friends, I had no idea of what she spoke. I did, however, quickly make my way to that savior of the great unwashed, Wikipedia.

And while I am no expert I can at least bluff my way though a blog post or two.

Antonio Gaudi i Cornet personified a trend that came about in the late 19th and 20th century architecture, a movement called Modernisme, with he himself becoming known as one of the Modernistas.

Elements of Modernisme show up (according to the literature) in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Austria. Gosh — more reasons to travel.

Once you see a couple of the buildings which epitomize this whimsical style, you’ll recognize the vitality and youthfulness which absolutely makes the trolling worth all the kilometres we’ve logged (on foot, BTW).

La Sagrada Familia This church of the holy family is so tall I could not fit it in the camera’s viewfinder as I was within the gates surrounding the building. Trust me when I tell you that it inspires a rush of awe through its sheer verticality.

Still under construction after 100 years, the church was Gaudi’s all-consuming obsession until he died — and work on it now still keeps true to his plans and vision. On the day of our visit the cranes were busy mobilizing supplies from one sky-scratching outlook to another.

The building’s interior has the swirling feel of paper cut-outs, and Gaudi planned every element of design, from stained glass to overhead candelabra to choir loft.

A note: The columns above are not actually curved. That’s the effect of the camera’s panorama feature, the only way to capture the floor-to-ceiling expanse of stone and concrete.

And an interesting note about the columns — they’re made of four different materials and vary in load-bearing strength. Gaudi designed the columns to branch out at the top like trees so that when the light poured in past the stained glass windows, the mottled effect on the floor would echo that of sunlight on the base of a thick forest. Such foresight.

The devout Gaudi used the exterior of the church to tell the biblical story of Jesus, set in little scenes around the four sides of the building. His own mortal remains are in the church’s crypt, viewable from above through a small plexiglas window.

All quite extraordinary.

The good news is that there will be even more to see should I ever return. The ever evolving tourist attraction!