December 10th, 2019
The highlight of today was taking a tour of Sagrada Familia which is a huge unfinished Roman Catholic church designed by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi. This church was his life’s work that he started in the 1880’s and continued to work up until his death in 1926. It has been under construction ever since, with an estimated finish date of 2026 (marking the 100th anniversary of his death). This was the most incredible church I have ever seen. Up until now, St. Peters Basilica in Rome had the number one spot for me personally. Sagrada Familia was absolutely jaw dropping! The outside was incredibly filled with meaning and significance in every intricate detail. When you walk in, it’s one of those goose bump moments where you can’t even believe what you are looking at. Of course, the photos cannot capture how big and amazing it is. I would highly recommend to anyone who visits Spain to make this a priority sight to see. At one point, church bells rang and Ava Maria was played. The beautiful vocals with the most amazing acoustics while standing looking at this incredible cathedral with light beaming through all the stained glass, was enough to bring a tear to my eye. It was just so beautiful!
Part of my tour was going up into one of the towers where there are great city views. The seemingly never-ending spiral staircase was crazy as it went up (or down) 210 feet. Once it is finished, the central tower will be over 550 feet tall and will make Sagrada Familia the tallest church in the world. Even though it is unfinished, it was so amazing I would love to come back one day and see it totally complete.
This church was in a different part of town from where I was staying, so I ended up doing a lot of walking all throughout the city. It was another fun day exploring Barcelona and seeing many different parts of the city.
