Who was Antoni Gaudi? Most people know him as the architect of the world famous church the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. But what many people don’t know are things about his personal life. For instance, did you know Gaudi’s first work was a gas lamp?
He created it when he was 23 years old for the rich Guell family. The Guells became wealthy when they, along with 16 other Spanish families, went to America and owned plantations that produced bananas, chocolate, coffee, and cotton. With this money, the Guell family paid for all of Gaudi’s work including their own palace. The palace looks very forbidding, as it is made out of granite and there are decorative grates on the first floor windows to stop people from throwing bombs inside and to protect the inhabitants from shrapnel from the bombs.
Another one of his buildings which is one of my favourites is the Casa Batllo. The roof is covered with multicoloured glass with a tower shaped like a cross sticking out of it. Gaudi wanted to make it look like Saint George killing a dragon with his sword. I found it really neat when I learned that Gaudi had ordered tiles to decorate the building and the tiles had broken when they were delivered. Gaudi still used the tiles and created a trademark style that people would remember him for. This is also the building with the famous “masked” balconies. When the dictator General Franco was in power in 1939-1975, he had a building built to block the view of the Casa Batllo if one tried to view it from down the street.
Casa Mila is the last civil building designed by Gaudi. It was built between the years 1906 and 1910. This building has no right angles in it, as Gaudi was really religious and said that God didn’t work in right angles, so neither would he. It is also said that George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, was inspired to make his Stormtrooper helmet design after the heads on this building. This building was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
Gaudi’s most famous masterpiece is the church of the Sagrada Familia. This church is the second most visited church in the world after the Vatican. It is also the worlds most visited construction site, as it is still being completed after approximately 130 years of work. Gaudi knew it wouldn’t be completed in his lifetime and said that the church would take 200 years to build. Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church in 2010, so now 50% of the money made from visitors goes to the Vatican and the other half goes towards the completion of the church.
The exterior of the church has three stories from the New Testament in the Bible. There is the Nativity, the Passion of Christ, and the Glory of Christ. The Nativity is the story of when Jesus was born in the manger and is the most ornate of the three scenes. It was carved during Gaudi’s lifetime and shows the main events and people in the story. The Passion of Christ tells of Jesus’ death, from the Last Supper, to the betrayal of Judas, his trial, his walk with the cross, his death, and resurrection. These scenes were carved after Gaudi’s death by a team of sculptors led by Josep Maria Subirachs. This set of carvings is not as decorated as the Nativity scene. I think it is meant to be a stark contrast of the happiness of new life and the sadness and bleakness of death. The third facade depicting the Glory of Christ, which will represent the road to God and representations of temptations, heresy, and the Seven Deadly Sins, is still incomplete, so cannot be viewed today.
There is going to be 18 outside towers, one for each apostle, the 4 evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), Mother Mary, and Jesus. When Gaudi was designing the church towers, he made them shorter than a nearby mountain. Since God made that mountain, Gaudi wanted to show that he wasn’t bigger than God. The neat things about the towers are the sculptures of many things that Gaudi found either interesting or a miracle. He was really fascinated with nature and has fruits and stalks of wheat on some of the towers as well as a bush full of doves. There are also snails and lizards coming down some of the towers because Gaudi thought their ability to stick to all surfaces, even upside down, was a miracle from God.
To enter the Sagrada Familia, on every side there are huge, thick doors that are each decorated differently. The door under the Nativity scene is made to look like it’s covered with leaves and little bugs and the door under the carvings of the Passion has the words “Jesus, king of the Jews”, the words on the sign nailed into the cross Jesus was crucified on, in many different languages.
The interior of the Sagrada Familia is amazing. When you first walk in, the first things you see are giant stained glass windows and beautiful stone pillars. The stained glass windows everywhere are all made out of Murano glass from Italy that make coloured patterns of light all around the church. I think that there is more than a million pieces of stained glass. The pillars that support the roof are designed to look like trees. About three quarters of the way up, they branch off into two or more smaller pillars and all the way at the top, the stone is designed to look like palm trees so when you look up, it feels like you are in a forest. Each pillar in the church is made of a different type of stone like Italian marble and basalt. The stone was exported from many places around Europe.
In the middle of the church is a roped off area full of chairs where people can sit and pray. I think that’s a really good idea because people can be worshipping while others are walking around and taking pictures. The sets of chairs are facing the altar with a really unique crucifix. Usually, crucifixes are mounted on the altar but this one is “floating”, suspended in the air with wires.
Gaudi sadly passed away in 1926 after he was hit by a tram. He was taken to the hospital but there was nothing that could save him. He knew he wouldn’t be around to see the completion of the beautiful Sagrada Familia.
There is so much that can be said about Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia, I think it would need 3 blog posts to give all the information. I had never heard of Gaudi before this trip, so this shows how much more knowledge and appreciation I have gained of these inspirational artists.
Comments
4 responses to “Good Gaudi!”
Hi Mikhaila,
Thank you very much for the wonderful review of Gaudi’s works. I, too, am a fan of his. Hopefully the Church will be finished in the next decade! Love, Baba
Hi Baba,
My favourite part of the church were the fruit towers and the ceiling. Gaudi certainly was an amazing architect!
Hello, Mikhaila, I am a few days late in reading the postings. So I was just “blown away” when I read this post about the beautiful Sagrada Familia. Your description and the matching photos are amazing. I was there about 50 years ago and the Cathedral was a “construction site” then. Sadly it was late in the day and we were not able to go in and just had time enough for a quick lock at the front portal. This posting has special meaning for me, because your detailed description brings back memories. I had no idea that Gaudi was so very religious and showed it in his work. I also enjoyed seeing photos of his other works around Barcelona. Thank you for all of this. Lots of XOXO’s
Hello Oma,
The Sagrada Familia is a gorgeous church and a pretty spectacluar construction site. 🙂 Gaudi was a really interesting person and a great architect.