The works of Antoni Gaudí

One of the probably most famous persons associated with Barcelona is the catalonian architect Antoni Gaudí. We saw 4 of his works during our visit, so I find it suiting to dedicate a post to those works including my favourite visit during our whole stay.

I've mentioned Casa Batlló in an earlier post about Eixample. We also took a look at Casa Milá which is also in the same area. More known as La Pedrera ("the quarry"), it was meant to outshine Casa Batlló and become Barcelona´s most spectacular building. It's outer walls are unlike most buildnings not bearing, therefor Gaudí could have free hands and bend the walls as he wished.

Parc Güell was not meant to be a park, it was a project for a more exclusive residental area. The area is huge: you could probably spend a whole day strolling around and there is a magnificent view over the city. You can even see the cranes surrounding Sagrada Familia in the distance.

It is filled with flowing shapes, spirals and mosaic. The mosaic has a particullary interesting (or rather funny) story; Gaudí hired a large team to smash glasses, plates and tiles and then put them together again, which would be ridiculed by the press.

It's fairly easy to get to Park Güell by bus, but the strong heat and the tiredness from 3 long days filled with adventures forced us to make the stay a bit shorter than usual.

Sagrada Familia

At last but certainly not least, my favourite place in Barcelona. Words cannot explain how majestic and mezmerizing Sagrada Familia is. From the never ending stone statues in different styles covering the outer to the magic of the dim light through the coloured glass inside -  it´s no surprise it has been called the 8th wonder of the world.

There was a very well-made and interesting museum underneath the building. There were sketches and models of different ideas of how it should look, each more splendid than the other. I was honestly exhausted when we went here, so unfortunately I never took any pictures. But if you ever have the chance to visit Barcelona, please do visit Sagrada Familia!

There is a lot of symbolism behind the many different scenes and figures carved out of stone. Next to Adam, Eve and the infamous snake, we see a square of numbers. It's a so called magic square and the sum of the numbers added together in a row (diagonal, horizontal and vertical) is always 33 - Jesus' age when he died on the cross.

 Sagrada Familia is an ongoing project since 1882, thereof the cranes surrounding it. There is a goal to finish it by 2026, exactly 100 years after Gaudís death, but it's not for sure.