Barcelona, la Cuitat de Gaudi

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I spent the day immersed in Gaudi.  I bought a ticket on a city tour bus which allowed me to ride around part of the city ( la Ruta azul) and get on and off at various stops.  My first stop was La Sagrada Familia.nthe cathedral conceived and begun by Antonin Gaudi in the late 19th century.  He knew he would not see it finished in his lifetime, but, he said his client was not in a hurry -  his time was unlimited.  Actually, Gaudi did not begin the cathedral.  It was begun by another architect in a classic Gothic style.  But that guy was fired and Gaudi took over.  He made several models before his design and his vision coalesced.  It became his life's work.

I was totally unprepared for what I experienced when I walked into that building.  Calling it a "building" doesn't seem fitting.  I don't believe words or even photos will do it justice.  It literally took my breath away and almost brought tears to my eyes.  I could compare it to being in a red wood forest, but the whole feeling is of weightlessness, light and color infusing everything, and organic like it grew rather than being built.

I remember vividly when I was 17 and was with a university art class touring Europe and we visited Chartres Cathedral in France.  It was a similar experience but I was only 17 and had never seen anything like it.  But that cathedral, though breathtakingly beautiful had an ethereal coldness to it.  La Sagrada Familia at the same time that it lifts the spirit it is grounded in the earth and humanity.

So much for my effort to capture the experience in words and pictures: