Sagrada Familia
During my trip to Barcelona I visited the famous Sagrada Familia, the strange unfinished masterpiece by Antonio Gaudi.
Sagrada Familia
It was an interesting place and full of surprises. The first surprise is that it is full of builders as they are still working hard to finish the basilica. You are told on a sign to be silent when all around you are the noises of men working, wood being cut, hammers banging and drills cutting into stone.
Sagrada Familia
If you only walked around the inside you will probably feel disappointed, the best views of the outside are from the street and inside it seems quite a mess. The building is still amazing, it is large and the style of it is so strange and it will be incredible when it is finished. Its hard to appreciate this work when so much is still being done.
Sagrada Familia
The most exciting part of the visit was when we decided to take a lift up into the tall spires that are so famous in all the pictures. It was a small elevator that quickly took us high into the building inside one of the towers. Once we stepped out we were told we could walk around and take the stairs down again.
Sagrada Familia
We started to explore the tiny corridors and immediately found ourselves looking out over the city of Barcelona. We followed the curve of the tower and came out on a narrow bridge between the middle towers. You can see this bridge in many of the photos of this building crossing from the two central towers and going behind the ‘tree of life’ in the centre.
Sagrada Familia
We enjoyed the view for a while and thought that we would now just have to begin our walk down to earth again but the adventure continued. The strange towers are hollow in the centre and have a staircase that circles around inside them. As you walk down the stairs you can see out of the towers across the rooftops of Barcelona down in the streets and the people below. Sometimes as you walk downwards you see as sign of a camera that means there is something to see and you should follow it! If you do you will find small balconies high in the towers that gove you interetsting views not only of the city but also of the building itself. From these places you get to see the unusual construction and can see the building in ways no-one can from the ground.
Sagrada Familia
After following every little twist and turn we began that final descent down a very small spiral staircase which made me feel very dizzy. It had a hole in the centre and you could see the stairs twisting downwards with a few hands following the hand rail so they dont fall down the middle.
Once we got to the ground we rested outside in th sun and looked back up at the towers wathing people looking out of the balconies above taking their pictures.
Then we decided to see the museum which was included in the price. It was also very interesting with plans showing the final design
