It would take 2 weeks to see all of Gaudi's works cursively but we had only 3 days so we saw what we could. The options were simplified for us because some of the tour sites closed by 2:30 p.m. Also there is a Gaudi pass that allows one into buildings not generally open to public tour that we didn't get since our time would be so short. We took a Gaudi bus to see Casa Vicens from the street (better than in pictures). While on the Gaudi Tour Bus we sat ahead of a British uncle with his nieces. He tried to describe the story of Sacreda Familia to her by saying, "It was started by a man named Gaudi a long long time ago." "Was Jesus alive then?" she asked. "No it was a long time after Jesus". "Was Grandma alive then?" "No it was a long time before grandma." He continued, "And when he was going to work he was killed by a streetcar" She clearly broke through the illogic by looking around. "But there are no streetcars here!" We passed  Park Guell (also a Gaudi work still in progress) and one of the nieces commented, "It is a funny park. It hasn't got a playground or anything. (seeing the ice cream vendor). It has got ice cream though. That's important." Afterwards went through guided tours of Sacreda Familia Cathedral and  La Pedrera (Casa Mila). 

Sagrada Familia was physically more than any image we'd seen Still a slow work in progress, Gaudi added "gargoyles" of a chameleon to represent the change of the building and a tortoise to represent the longevity and slowness. It is due for completion within 15 years. When complete the Temple will be able to accommodate a choir of 1500 and 5000 worshippers at a sitting.	The columns are each of a different material and each a slightly different size and shape due to the different compressive strengths of the materials. As you can see in the closer view it is very much still a work in progress with scaffolding filling the space, glass is not yet in some windows and work goes on 6 days a week as it has and will for years to come.	The columns are not  vertical but near the top (shown) have an inward branching making a parabola that eliminates the need for flying buttresses. The spires and ceiling support are of catenary arches - the asymmetric form of a parabola that he developed doing Casa Mila. The roof of this cathedral looks like the underside of a canopy with skylights to bring in natural light.	This model of the apse is the next part the architectural team will build. It is a model made by Gaudi himself but it, and all his other models were broken during the civil war. Since that time the models have been the ultimate jigsaw puzzles to reassemble. Once reassembled a new model is cast from it so that Gaudi's whimsical vision is kept absolutely accurately through its more than a century of implementation.	In close up the outline of Sagrada Familia Temple can be seen here through an arch on the roof of Casa Mila. The arch is covered with the broken tile style that Gaudi is known for but actually besides Gaudi but he was just part of the worldwide  Art Nouveau decorative trend.  He took it to a larger scale than most.
The top of the steeple named after the apostles is topped with a bowl of fruit representing the fruit of the spirit and spiritual fertility. A future tower, to be the world's tallest will be topped with an electrically lit cross.	The tour was well worth it explaining the moods of the entry facades of birth (completed in a realist style), death (recently completed in a brutal modern minimalist style, part above) and the glory (to come on the main doors of the long section of the cross not yet completed).	The free-form   iron leaf balconies with partially glass floors are still innovative now at Casa Mila.	While we were at Casa Mila there was a film crew shooting it too.	The lines were long but moved very fast, just long enough to catch a bit of news.
The shapes on all the exteriors were organic before that became a full-blown style. Unfortunately it wasn't carried as extensively through the interiors.	Gaudi also had some beautiful murals that transitioned from realist to romantic to dissolved abstractions of colors in a house that is occupied apartments.	The residence has at least 3 light wells that bring natural light throughout the building.	The rolling surface of the roof was well peopled. Below was a museum of the times the place was built, models of this and other designs, and a living quarters as it was originally set up.	Under the rolling roofline is the stronger arch he designed by using a model of strings and sacs of lead weights to discover how gravity impacted load.

2002, Pearl and Brian Pirie       | Trip Main Page |