Stepping inside La Sagrada Familia cathedral is like walking into an enchanted forest. Your gaze goes and up and up, following the trunks of trees toward light-filled branches.
The forest is made up of several kinds of stone, so each tree trunk has its own subtle shade, some leaning red, others green. They branch out at the top into smaller and smaller columns, like fingers stretching out to hold up an impossibly ornate ceiling.
Only it’s not a ceiling at all, but a canopy of leaves and stars woven tightly together, as you would find in any forest grove.
Toward the right of the main entrance is the heart of the cathedral with two massive organs and rows of pews for worship. There floating beneath an umbrella of lights is the upward-gazing figure of the Christ.
Along the sides of the main chamber are spiraling staircases moving up the towers, to what and where, I do not know.
Colored light floods the cathedral, streaming through the stained glass windows, or projected along the walls and columns, flowing from blue to green, and gold to scarlet,
Glimpses of the crypts below can be seen through artful cut-outs in the stone.
Toward the exit is a large loggia featuring some of the furnishings Gaudi created for the cathedral, and a single simple painting, capturing the tenderness and grief at the fallen Son.
Below are two virtual tours of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. The first video is very short and gives you a 360 degree view of the interior main chamber. The second video, which takes around five minutes, shows both the exterior and interior, with some lovely aerial shots outside, while inside the church is full of worshipers during its consecration mass.
All the still photos in this post are my own except for the ceiling shot which came from Wikipedia.
My last blog post features the exterior of La Sagrada Familia and tells more about its creation.
Thank you for sharing this awesome beauty that I would otherwise not even know about.
You are so welcome, Catherine. I love to share things that inspire me.
Awesome (in the true sense of the word, not just slang).
I agree!
I continue to be amazed at revisiting this old memory now updated and I would never have guessed how stupendously overwhelmingly exquisite this cathedral would become when I visited an open air construction site in 1983.
And it’s still a work in progress! Who know what more there will be to see when our kids and grandkids visit it.
I’ve been thinking about how its story had always been in progress. What will it be when finished, will that sense of future and expectations and change continue?
Wonderful! I was there 25 years ago when the roof was not finished yet, very impressive already. The backside where Jezus gets arrested and crucified send shivers down my spine. Wow, what an incredible artwork. Beautiful city too. 🙂
I loved Barcelona. So much to see there. I got chills too from his spectacular artwork.
Wow! Absolutely stunning! Thank you so much for sharing your photographs. I may never get to Spain, but I almost feel like I got a first-hand view.
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