Sunday morning seemed an apt time to visit Sacrada Familia, the basilica most closely associated with Antoni Gaudi. We arrived fifteen minutes or so prior to the 9:00 AM opening to find the ticket line already stretching around the corner; Annika and Dierk joined us soon thereafter. The line moved along quickly enough; and, once we had picked up our audio guides, we began what turned out to be a mesmerizing ninety minutes touring what has become, since its formal dedication in 2010, one of the world's most visited sites.
Gaudi himself was a very conservative Catholic and, when he took over as the chief architect for the building project in 1883, conceived of the church as an "exculpatory temple" constructed to seek God's forgiveness for the negative effects of modernity's excesses visited on the world by industrialization and mechanization. What is even more obvious at this point in the building process (completion is scheduled for 2020 or thereabouts), however, is that Gaudi "gets it" -- in terms of what a twenty-first century religious space should be about.
The soaring interior is breath-taking. Both of us were emtionally moved when we walked into the chancel area. The eye is immediately drawn upward. The organic shapes of the supporting pillars, the brilliant stainglass windows, the flowing lines everywhere awe and humble one simultaneously.
Gaudi hoped his efforts would serve as an expression "of solidarity, of Faith and Hope embraced by Love which, with its invocation of God the Father, our Creator, is the sign of the brotherhood of all human beings." Certainly we were drawn into that vision, an uplifting experience of exultation and hopefulness and gratitude.
Gaudi himself was a very conservative Catholic and, when he took over as the chief architect for the building project in 1883, conceived of the church as an "exculpatory temple" constructed to seek God's forgiveness for the negative effects of modernity's excesses visited on the world by industrialization and mechanization. What is even more obvious at this point in the building process (completion is scheduled for 2020 or thereabouts), however, is that Gaudi "gets it" -- in terms of what a twenty-first century religious space should be about.
The soaring interior is breath-taking. Both of us were emtionally moved when we walked into the chancel area. The eye is immediately drawn upward. The organic shapes of the supporting pillars, the brilliant stainglass windows, the flowing lines everywhere awe and humble one simultaneously.
Gaudi hoped his efforts would serve as an expression "of solidarity, of Faith and Hope embraced by Love which, with its invocation of God the Father, our Creator, is the sign of the brotherhood of all human beings." Certainly we were drawn into that vision, an uplifting experience of exultation and hopefulness and gratitude.
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