It's All About Gaudi

It's gonna be all about Antoni Gaudi when traveling to Barcelona. His landmarks scatter all around Barcelona and beyond.

1. Sagrade Familia

It is originally designed by Antoni Gaudi. Make sure you do some reading before you go to this Europe's most unconventional church. Or, you could go for a guided tour - like me (the lazy style), to know more about the history of it. It is absolutely worth it.




We went for the guided tour and the meaning behind all of the facades and sculptures in this church are just marvellous. There are reasons and meanings for every single detail decorating the interior and exterior of the church!



From what I remember the church has three facades! Emmm....google it...

"The Passion Facade, the Nativity Facade and the Glory Facade. Each facade has three portals representing the virtues of Faith, Hope and Love"



And there is a story of each facade.

Like this one, the square number which look like sodoku is actually represents the age of the death of Christ - 33yrs old. No matter how you add it up (i.e. horizontally, diagonally & vertically), it would add up to 33.






This is the Nativity Facade on the east side which narrates the birth of Christ.

The Passion Facade on the west side tells the story of the suffering and death of Christ.

The construction of the church started at 1882!!! With the technology of that time, how could they build such a wonderful church?

This is Gaudi's hanging model used to design Sagrade Familia. It is a system of threads represents columns and walls. Sachets with lead shot resemble the weight of small building parts. The purpose is to find the most efficient weight distribution for the building structure. The actual building constructed is actually in the form the hanging model, turned upside down.



Isn't it brilliant?


As you can see from the photos, there are tower cranes hovering over the church. The church is still not completed yet. The church is scheduled to be completed in 2026.

Oh my, by that time I am already an old woman!

By the way, we purposely returned there at night just to snap the night scenes. Nice hor?

2. Casa Mila "La Pededra"

I'm just so curious how Gaudi got the inspiration to build this cliffs-like building. Its wall just like an ocean wave.

On the roof of Casa Mila, there are chunks of weird projection which I could not fathom their existence. Apparently, these are the chimneys, ventilation shafts and the roof of stair wells for Casa Mila. At the early years, Casa Mila was the apartment home of a wealthy businessman.

More weird stuffs. To me, these just looks like a couple of masked knights guarding the roof of Casa Mila.

Bizarre!

3. Parc Guell

Another Gaudi's works. I could not remember much about the history of this. As far as I know, Parc Guell is a public park now.

Nice mosaic decoration at one of the benches in Parc Guell.

The park is quite huge though. I guess we only managed to tour about 50% of the area.

That is a pedestrian bridge constructed by stones! Rather ingenious though.

We snapped tonnes of photos like no tomorrow in Barcelona and I am glad most of them turn out to be quite picturesque.