Barcelona: Saturday

You guys. I found my favorite church. Well...the interior. But first:

Saturday morning started with a run along the (Mediterranean!) waterfront in Barcelona. It was a beautiful day, sunny even though it was chilly. I don't run with my phone so I didn't take any pictures, but here's one of the waterfront area where we were running:

 

Water! At the time, there were even surfers!

There was a great running path right above the beach, and we saw lots of other runners--even running groups and beach-fitness classes! I'm a huge nerd about that stuff; it always makes me really happy to see active people in a city, it makes it seem more liveable. Plus we had a great longer run unintentionally!

After having breakfast at the market from the day before, we hopped on the subway to go to La Sagrada Familia, the famous unfinished cathedral designed by Gaudi. There was a line to get tickets, but once we got inside it was totally amazing! Gaudi wanted to design the ultimate church, and the result (so far) is incredible. 

 

Here's the outside, which is still under construction. But it's not my favorite part...

The stained glass is used to create colorful light and to convey theological points (Gaudi was really serious about this church). Each of the four sides of the church conveys a different theological point or story, from the celebration/birth of Christ:

 

Up close you can see the statues and detailing in the masonry.  

 

And from further away you get the larger picture. Look at the way the stained glass colors the pillars! I can't get over that!

To His passion and ascension. This picture isn't very good, but you can make out the transition from reds and oranges at the bottom to the white pane at the top, which symbolizes the ascension. On the left and right are green and blue panes, indicating earth and water for very important reasons that I can't quite remember. 

 

Sorry for the picture quality, this is the first one I took and I was busy looking everywhere at once...

As you walk towards the altar end of the church, the panes of stained glass are colored to create changes over the course of the day. It was about 2pm, so the light was coming in from the left of the altar. I absolutely loved the way the light from the glass colored the inside of the church. 

  

This picture is unaltered, which I can't believe. Look how each portico is a different color!

 

This is the one that shows red in the picture above. You can see how, at different times of day, it would show different colors even within the same windows. You can also see the really cool broken-glass effect they used. It's not pictures, it's just color and shape. 

 

Here we're looking at the window behind the altar from the red windows. You can see how the windows color the columns.

 As you walk towards the back of the church, there are areas where the stained glass isn't finished yet. As much as I'm determined to go back when it's finished to see how it turned out, I'm really glad I got to see it now too. The green window on this section is finished, but the windows beyond are just plain glass. 

 

The reflection from the completed window and that of the plain windows.

 

And the windows themselves. Look how cool the geometry of the ceiling is!

 

Straight-on of the green window.

Finally, on the altar end of the church, there are windows left intentionally colorless, but still with the abstract broken-glass shapes. Gaudi didn't want people to be distracted by the glass while they're trying to worship, and also something about purity etc. The glass artist did a really good job making the glass beautiful even without color, and I totally didn't get good pictures of it...

 

Look how pretty!! 

As much as the light was probably my favorite part of the church, Gaudi also paid attention to the acoustics of the church. He used hyperbolas to shape the ceiling, making it so that the church resonates without echoing. That's especially important since the choir loft is designed for 10,000 singers! Plus it looks really cool.

 

See? Awesome!

After the church, we explored the area around it and got lunch (at 4 in the afternoon, we're getting super Spanish), then walked along a major street, shopping a little bit (the shopping there is SO GOOD, have I mentioned?), until we saw two of Gaudi's other famous works: Casa Milá and Casa Batlló. The first one wasn't our favorite, but Casa Batlló was super cool: very colorful and interestingly shaped. It's so cool to see something like that just on a major street!

 

I'm glad they light it up, it was starting to get dark!

On the way home, we saw fliers for a Spanish Guitar concert that started soon, so we ran home, had a quick dinner of bread, olives, and salami while changing clothes, and went to the concert. It was really amazing--one of those things that makes you think, "I should learn to play guitar!" even though I don't really stand a chance of ever getting that good--and it was in a 14th-century church, which added to the cool. After that, we did a little wandering and headed home.

Up next: Sunday!

Love Katie