Sagrada Familia, 2023

Or Sangria Familia, as we call it. We've been visiting Gaudi's Modernista church since 2010, even before the interior was opened. Even before it was consecrated. We spent four full hours this time, doing a 45 minute English tour, the school, the museum, the sacristy, the restrooms, and wore ourselves out doing the towers. And then the gift shoppe. It's all a bit much, if you ask me, even if you like Modernisme and Gaudi. If the Catholics ever do an amusement park, the Minor Basilica and Temple Expiatory of the Sacred Family will be their Cinderella's Castle. Obviously, the Sangria Familia will require several posts, including its own out-takes.

It was just a kilometer or so from our apartment,
so we walked; here, approaching from the west; still
Christendom's largest unfinished church, it is said

The entrance, and the start our tour, were on the east side,
that is, the Nativity side; here, some of the Nativity sculpture

Annunciation

Now inside; we were not alone; Gaudi wanted the inside
to look like a forest of trees; part of his Nature Boy aesthetic

Some of the glass; not 13th century; not even 20th;
mostly blue/green on the Nativity side; red/orange
on the Passion side

Even if not Medieval, pretty fabulous

At the south end, St. George, patron saint of Barcelona; no dragon?

At the north end, JC; perhaps this is the place to
remark on Sagrada Familia's unusual--not to say,
unheard of, in (Catholic) Christendom--north/south
orientation; we'll see some of the other deities and
demi-deities in later pix

More glass

"Rose" window

Crossing; I think

Now exiting for a look at the Passion (west) facade

Thus

Passion sculpture; note Storm Troopers

Action shot with crane

Lamentation, Pieta, Deposition, etc.

Now we are in the sacristy, looking at furniture, etc., that Gaudi
designed for the church

Moveable pulpit

Modernista cue-cards for officiating priests

Sacristy sanctum sanctorum

Peering into the crypt, where Gaudi is buried...
died in 1926, run over by a tram...I speculate he
was absorbed doing a selfie...

Some of one of the organs

On the Passion, west side, Mary

And on the east, Nativity side, Joseph; the church
was originally sponsored by the Society of Joseph,
or somesuch; seriously; elsewhere, Joseph is rarely
regarded as more than a minor saint/deity; lots of
questions about him, what he was up to...

More glass

One of the Passion side doors; we think
this is Welsh for "exit"