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12
Mar 23

Inside Sagrada Familia

There are a few things you should know before we step inside one of Spain’s most important cultural icons, and one of her most popular attractions. In no particular order …

As I said, I didn’t care for the aesthetic of the exterior of Sagrada Familia. It just doesn’t appeal to me. Secondly, I am probably not a talented enough photographer, and I certainly didn’t have the proper equipment with me, to capture the incredible beauty of the interior.

I say that because, in my humble and awe-inspired opinion, this was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever stood, including some of the best places of worship in London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Istanbul, New York and elsewhere.

Third, all of the liberally quoted text that follows about Antoni Gaudí’s masterwork, is from this page.

Finally, if we ever have the opportunity to visit Barcelona again, we’re blocking off a sunny day, just to sit inside this place to watch the light change. You’ll see why, just as soon as we go through the Door of the Portal of Faith.

I previously mentioned the long-running construction.

“The date of completion of the Sagrada Familia has been postponed many times. It is one of the longest architectural projects in the world and if the finish date is met, construction will have taken 147 years. This is surprising if we consider that we are in the 21st century. In this article we are going to understand why the work has taken so long and why now they are moving at a good pace.

“The year 2026 will mark the centenary year of the death of Gaudí and we want to celebrate this anniversary by completing the Sagrada Familia. However, there are two things which won’t be finished by 2026: the artistic part and the surroundings of the Basilica.”

“Finishing the Sagrada Familia is a long and complicated task. The reasons for the delay in the finalization of the project are its complicated architecture and historical changes such as the death of Gaudí, the Spanish Civil War, the destruction of the original project and the limited economic support from private donations that have subsidized it.

“The photo collage shows the evolution of the work over the years.”

I’m not the sort to pick on these things myself, but if you listen to the audio tour, there is some discussion of the columns, which are both artistic and structural. They, like so much of Gaudí’s work, are meant to be evocative of nature. Trees, in this case. And once you realize that — the shape, the shade of the selected stones, the way the branches fly into the ceiling — you can’t unsee it. As … you’ll see …

The windows facing the west are the reds, oranges and yellows. The ones to the east are in cooler blues and greens. And this sets the mood of the entire place.

We were there in the middle of the afternoon, at a time of day when you’re struck by how much of this enormous space is filled with natural light.

“(A)narchists set fire to part of the Sagrada Familia at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, including the workshop where Gaudí had always worked.

“In Gaudí’s workshop there was not a large library and the graphic material was reduced to a minimum. There was a photographic workshop, a space for sculptures, a large area for plaster models (scale 1:10 or 1:25) and a large number of models to investigate aspects of lighting, functionality, construction and structure.

“Many of the sketches, drawings and models by the great architect disappeared and a lot of information on how to continue the work was lost. In 1936 they tried to preserve the remains of the destruction by sandwiching the pieces, and that is how they survived the conflict, hidden between two walls.

“The Civil War caused the paralysis of the works for 17 years (1935 – 1952). It was not until 1976 that the four towers of the Passion façade were finished, where Josep Maria Subirachs added his sculptural work which begun in 1988.

“The Sagrada Familia is an expiatory temple which means that it is financed only by selfless donations from the loyal supporters and by the tickets of the tourists who visit it.”

See those trees yet?

So there’s interpreting the architect’s intent, following what survived of his plans, and continuing on, but also those budget problems. What’s before us, then, is even more breathtaking considering these circumstances.

“Three generations of architects have dedicated themselves to recomposing the more than 1,000 pieces of model left over from the fire of Gaudí’s studio in 1936. But Gaudí’s work was so avant-garde, that architects could not easily reconstruct their designs.

“The forms that make up the building are so complex that five different computer programs have had to be combined to reconstruct the surfaces outlined by Gaudí. These programs are used in the automotive and aeronautical industry. This is without a doubt an important factor in the completion of the Sagrada Familia.

“Gaudí transformed his plans into large scale models because he wanted to see the three dimensions.”

If you stand right in the center, and look up, this is the ceiling, the underside of Gaudí’s magesterial canopy.

“Since 2000, his model has been continued thanks to the use of 3D printers. These allow us to manufacture the gypsum models originally designed by Gaudí. It is indisputable that 3D vision has helped guide decisions about the design and structural behaviour of the project.

“Since the end of 2016, the technology offered by virtual reality glasses has been used to carry out three-dimensional simulations. This technology allows us to reduce the work times in projection.”

New building techniques are also speeding up actual construction, particularly as it applies to the towers, of which you’ll count 18 when the building’s work is done.

Remember, I began this post saying I’m not a talented enough photographer to share this with you. I mentioned the changing light. Both of these are proven in the last two shots, taken from almost the same spot, just a few moments apart.

Yes, I would spend a day in here, watching the wonder of the wandering light dancing through Gaudí’s inspired work.

“The straight line belongs to Man; the curved line belongs to God,” Gaudi said. The man knew some stuff.

Up next: A quick trip into one of Sagrada Familia’s towers.

adventures / photo / Spain / weekend — Comments Off
12
Mar 23

IACS, day two, or the rare weekend post, part one

Happy Sunday. We’re all out of sorts here, with extra posts because of our many adventures. So let’s dive in. Yesterday, Saturday, we spent at the conference, and chatting with friends old and new. It was a fine day with delightful people.

Today, we took in two of Barcelona’s sites.

First was Park Güell, on the northern face of the Collserola mountain range. The design was Antoni Gaudí’s, the architect is the face of local modernism, but more on him in the next post. The park was opened in 1926 and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984. More than 12 million tourists visit the park each year, but the initial plan was to build a complex of high-quality houses.

Also, it affords these outstanding views of the city and countryside.

The Calvary — or the hill of the three crosses, or El turó de les Tres Creus in Catalan — is a small manmade mountain. There are three crosses there. It was intended to be a chapel, but Gaudi didn’t finish it. Highest part of the park.

This was to be at the front of the failed housing project, and inspired by the story of Hänsel and Gretel. There are two buildings here, model houses, really. This one was to be an administrative building, but is now a bookstore and gift shop. That cross is not original. It was destroyed in the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and rebuilt sometime thereafter.

This is the Escalera Monumental, or dragon staircase. Very popular, and if you’ve ever seen photos from Güell, this is probably what you saw first. The highlights are the mosaics, which you can’t appreciate properly for all of these crowds.

A lot of Gaudi’s work doesn’t appeal to me. The explanations for what he was after often feel like apologia. “It’s an appeal to nature!” If you say so. Modernism has plenty of peculiar strains though, and it isn’t always better. I love the mosaic work, there’s not one in Spain I wouldn’t stop to admire, but I can dismiss much of the rest of Gaudi’s park.

We visited there with some friends from Louisville and Canada — you don’t know them. After, we cooled down with a gelato, took a group photo and said our goodbyes. The conference was ended, and we’re all going to separate places in the hours and days to come.

The first place The Yankee and I were going was to the Sagrada Familia. It was a mile or so away, and we strolled through beautiful high end neighborhoods. Apartment living looks fine, if, I’m sure, you can afford it.

This is Casa de les Punxes, or Casa Terradas. Bartomeu Terradas i Mont, a textile magnate, and his son, Bartomeu Terradas Brutau — a soccer player, a founding member of FC Barcelona and, briefly, the team president — had this house built for the women in their family in 1905. It is actually three buildings, but design and perspective make it all merge fairly seamlessly. (And if I’d been on my toes when we walked by, I’d have a better photo to show that.) The medieval modernism style makes it a signature Barcelona building, and in 1975, it was declared a national historic monument.

Soon after, we arrived at Sagrada Familia, the famous church — and famously unfinished church — designed by Antoni Gaudí.

We’ve seen beautiful churches and cathedrals in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, across the United States. It’s just a thing we do on trips, now, and they never disappoint. But, as I said above, Gaudí’s quirky style isn’t to my taste. He was killed by a tram in 1926. He was 73 and about a quarter of the project was completed, so he was never going to see this place finished. Here we are, almost 100 years later, work still in progress.

The exterior is adorned with scenes depicting Jesus’ life.

Rich with symbolism, or at least stabs at explanation, it is quite … involved and ornate … in its own mottled sort of way.

I don’t care for the style, is all.

Except for these. While the church work has been underway since late in the 19th century, these doors were installed in 2015. Apparently there were no doors before that.

These are bronze, and that’s symbolic too, since the more it gets touched, the more brilliant and beautiful it becomes like the love between two people. These doors were crafted by a man named Etsuro Sotoo. The “Japanese Gaudí” came to Spain in 1978 and his devoted much of his life’s work to project. I’ve shortchanged his genius by capturing it with two hasty photos.

These doors, the Doors of the Charity, are absolutely stunning.

After Gaudí died, work continued, but then came a two-decade pause from the Spanish Civil War and World War II, and then some time repairing war damage. And the work always continues. A few generations of artisans and laborers since … they’re eyeing a tangible finish line. In the next decade or so, they’re anticipating finally having Sagrada Familia completed.

In the next post you’ll see the interior, and why we will most definitely be back.

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31
Dec 22

52 things I learned in 2022

We’re all moving on, done with 2022 and hopeful for 2023. But we’ll take some things with us. Much of it good, and much of the rest are things we’ve learned along the way. (Inspired by https://medium.com/magnetic/52-things-i-learned-in-2021-8481c4e0d409″>Tom Whitwell.)

In no particular order …

1. Toyota is now America’s top-selling automaker

2. We can put pig hearts in humans

3. A billion years of the planet’s history is missing, maybe

4. The digital cloud is impacting the planet

5. 20 things to learn about where you live

6. Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

7. Calculate the pizza exchange rate

8. Lack of advancement, development is why people quit

9. Staffing shortages may take years to resolve

10. We miscalculated the cost of the federal student loan program

11. Many states that restrict or ban abortion don’t teach kids about sex and pregnancy

12. That huge four-day work week trial worked, called a win-win

13. Facebook and your hospital may be in cahoots

14. We built a better battery, and gave it away

15. Saving seagrass is vitally important

16. Somewhere, spiders are dreaming right now, perhaps

17. 1.55 million households avoided eviction because of that 2020-2021 moratorium

18. Samuel Whittemore fought in the American Revolution, killed three, left for dead, lived for 18 more years

19. We’re getting closer to understanding the human-neanderthal overlap

20. Following the black soldiers who biked across America

21. Uncovering the 1,400-Year-Old Native American canal in Alabama

22. Scientists are working on manipulating photosynthesis

23. When Twitter goes, we’re going to lose a lot

24. Early tools might have been intuited, rather than taught

25. Blowing on hot food is actually effective

26. New internet users don’t have the usual expectations and mindset

27. FEMA has a weather problem

28. LiDAR uncovers ancient monuments on the Belarus-Poland frontier

29. LiDAR is also helping flesh out a Mayan city in Mexico

30. We touched the sun

31. And, for the first time, purposely changing the motion of a celestial object

32. Parts of the Star Catalogue, the oldest known attempt to mark fixed stars, is revealed with new tech

33. On charting stars, we owe more to 19th century women than you may realize

34. Meanwhile, the Webb Telescope is just getting started and here are the first pics

35. We might be at a turning point in Alzheimer’s research

36. Children in poor socioeconomic conditions age more rapidly

37. Recipe: Super-soft cream cheese cookies

38. Scientists at MIT are studying why Oreos do what they do

39. But, then, one day, we might eat air

40. The simple genius of NYC’s water supply system

41. Turns out we might all be related

42. Artificial intelligence may make our biomes better

43. Yet another AI innovation, colorizing black and white photos

44. Deep learning can, for some reason, determine males from females based on their eyes

45. Data centers are becoming an energy concern

46. Dogs are learning about, and communicating with, buttons

47. VR seems to stimulate more dairy cattle milk production

48. There’s such a thing as mental health “warmlines” for those not in a crisis

49. Even masters can be stumped

50. Guns now kill more American kids than car accidents

51. Approximately 1 out of every 70 Americans 65+ died of Covid-19 in the past three years

52. There are now 8 billion people, and growing, on the planet

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25
Dec 22

Merry Christmas

Peace.

Joy.

Happiness.

adventures / Paris / photo / weekend — Comments Off
12
Jun 22

Au revoir, Paris

This was written for a Sunday, two weeks ago in fact. It is part of the effort to document and re-live our most recent, amazing adventure. So, if you’d be so kind as to cast your mind back two weeks …

On Sunday morning The Yankee had two presentations to deliver to the International Communication Association.

In a word, both presentations were brilliant.

Afterward we visited the Garden of the Great Explorers Marco-Polo and Cavelier-de-la-Salle and the Luxembourg Gardens. The garden was created in 1867, and this fountain, was installed in 1875.

That’s the Quatre-Parties-du-Monde fountain, or the Fountain of the Four Parts of the World. The theme is related to the nearby Paris Observatory, and the four women who support the celestial sphere, was created by a 19th century master, Jean-Baptiste_Carpeaux. (In the U.S. you can see his works at the Art Institute in Chicago, the New York Metropolitan Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. The smaller pieces, the turtles and fish and sea horses, were designed by a man named Emmanuel Frémiet, who was famed for his lifelike animals. And if you get closer to it all, you can see the craft of all of the artisans involved. There’s a lot of implied movement in this fountain.

A quick glance at the classic Haussmanian style of buildings that so typify central Paris.

And here we are in front of the Luxembourg Palace, home of the French Senate. And these are the Jardin du Luxembourg.

We sat on a bench in the garden, and enjoyed watching the sun dance through the leaves below the afternoon sky.

She was reviewing her mental notes for the next stage of our trip, which we’ll start talking about here tomorrow.

But, first, we stopped for dinner. We found a little casual Italian place that was on the way between here and there, and that was quiet and charming, until a very large family, fresh from Disneyland Paris showed up. After that, it was loud and charming.

We met some friends for a dessert crepe. Normally I’m not a crepe guy, but our friend had a long history with the place we wound up. She’d eaten here a lot once upon a time when she studied in France. It’s run by an older woman who suffers no fools and, apparently, likes her young employees. She was feisty.

And they made great crepes. There was chocolate in mine. That was the right choice. After dessert crepes, we all ventured over to the Eiffel Tower for pictures.

Yes, there are four pictures of the Eiffel Tower here. I didn’t want to choose between the slightly different versions. They’re all beautiful, and you can patiently enjoy each of them.

And that is where we said our goodbyes to our friends. We’ll see them again in a few months, for a big party, but hugs below the shiny, glittery tower seem a cosmopolitan way to say until then.

And while they had to head back to the United States the next day, we did not catch a plane.

We took a train.

Where do you suppose we went?