Gaudi's Cathedral (The Temple of La Sagrada Familia: Expiatory Temple to the Holy Family)is about half finished. It's clearly the strangest piece of architecture we've ever encountered. We can't resist returning again for night pictures.
George Orwell said that the Anarchists should have blown the thing up when they had the chance.
The building has been under construction for over 110 years. The ground floor is a construction area full of bags of concrete being formed into strange shapes by a crew of 300.
We arrive just before dark and pay the euros to tour the interior and museum. The lift to the steeple closes just before we arrive, but the interior and large museum in the basement is interesting. Gaudi appears to be one of those strange geniuses from outer space like Nickola Tesla or Salvador Dali. His concept for the church was rendered with thousands of small bags of sand suspended by strings and reversed in a mirror.
We go into two nearby places for tapas and wine, waiting for the lights to illuminate the church.
Gaudi works with shapes from nature to create a structure that appears to have been grown by space aliens, rather than built.
The interior arches are graceful curves. As they close the church to tourist, we hear a mass being conducted in a small area of the church, perhaps 1,000 square feet in area.
When the top is completed, it will feature a much taller tower topped by a huge cross that emits laser beams. One again we wish for a time machine to go forward 200 or 300 years to see the completed building.
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