A Woman's Reflection on Travel: Barcelona - La Familia Sagrada Cathedral (This needs it's own full post! It's so-o-o cool!)

Barcelona - La Familia Sagrada Cathedral (This post needs it's own full page. It's so-o-o cool!) (Sorry! I am trying to edit but the captions are not showing up for some reason. I am on a ship and that may have something to do with it, or it may just be my computer skills are lacking)

So, the biggest landmark in Barcelona is La Familia Segrada. (The Sacred Family) I had never heard of it before but my friends had so we went there first. They had seen it before - several years ago. The thing is, it is constantly changing so it looked very different from the last time they saw it. As you can see from these photos, it is under construction - and has been for, I think, over 100 years.

One side of the Cathedral is the "dark side" meaning bad things like devils,

or, this is Judas betraying Christ with a kiss. You may note that this is a very modern style of architecture.

Here is the crucifixion of Christ.

This is the whipping of Jesus.

and this is Peter denying Christ to the

ones who asked if he knew Christ.

This is the sign for Alpha and Omega

(the beginning & the end)

The entrance doors have The Lord's Prayer written

and all around that, in smaller letters, it says,

in many languages,

"give us this day our daily bread"

I found it in English!

These are some of the doors on the side of "birth". They depict leaves and see the lady bugs?

Also on the "birth" side is a sculpture of the birth of Christ.

See the 2 turtles on the "birth" side of the cathedral? One has "toes" the other does not. They represent travel in water (the one with fins) and travel on earth (the turtle with the "toes")

Looking up towards the ceiling, it was designed to look like a forest. See the tree trunks and the giant canopy of leaves above?

Here is a crucifix with a canopy above. In the canopy are olives and olive branches and words relating to peace on earth.

It was interesting to me to see that they used human models to form the sculptures. Also, he portrayed Jesus as naked because that is what they said in the Bible.

When the Pope came to dedicate the cathedral and it actually became a catholic church in 2010, they covered Jesus' body so that he was not naked while the Pope was there.

Look at these incredible interesting and unique design lines.

This picture is actually shot looking down into the basement where there are, I think they said, 6 chapels where they hold services. The brown vertical lines are actually benches and to the left is the altar. This is where the artist was buried.