If you only have time for one sightseeing in Barcelona, then visit Templo Expiatiorio de la Sagrada Familia (Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family); convenient Metro station Sagrada Familia is next to the cathedral. The Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi masterpiece, is finest cathedral I have ever seen. There is no other church like that on the surface of the planet. Antoni Gaudi (1852 – 1926) was born in Reus and initially trained in metalwork. He obtained his architecture degree in 1878. Up to 1910 Gaudi worked on numerous buildings in Barcelona. The idea for La Sagrada Familia came from a rich publisher, Josef Maria Bocabella I Verdauger. What decadent Barcelona needed was a great church raised to the Holy Family, where contrite citizens could expiate their sins. The original architect soon quit, and into the breech stepped Antoni Gaudi in 1884 as lead architect at the age of 31.

After finishing La Pedera on the Passeig de Gracia for the Mila family, he began to narrow his efforts (still working on the fantastic Parc Güell though). As Gaudi worked on La Sagrada Familia, he evolved steadily grander and added more original ideas for it. With his characteristic dislike for straight lines (there were none in nature, he said), Gaudi gave his towers swelling outlines inspired by the peaks of the holy mountain Montserrat outside Barcelona. His project comprised three facades of which Gaudi completed only the Nativity Facade. The church inside is awesome. The interior has a central nave supported by a forest of leaning columns. Gaudi lived his last years in a workshop on site, adopting the plans right up to his death. The architect was run over by a tram on the Gran Via in June 1926. His death was treated as a Catalan national disaster, and all of Barcelona turned out for his funeral procession. After Gaudí's death construction slowed dramatically and resumed only in late 50th. You can visit the crypt were Gaudí is buried. A museum tells the story of this great architect and the history of the church. You can also visit the towers. Admission fee to the cathedral and the museum is €8.

Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia is a partially built Roman Catholic Basilica in Barcelona, Spain. It is considered one of the most extraordinary designs of Antoni Gaudi.

La Sagrada Familia
Daily 9:00-8:00 pm (6:00 pm in winter)
Admission: 8,00 euros (students 5,00)

La Sagrada Familia is Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece--construction is ongoing. Already, though, it is magnificent. The structure is beautiful, and the best part is that it's full of symbolism--like the 12 bell towers, which represent the apostles. Be sure to check out the Nativity and Passion scenes on the church.

You can go up in the towers. There are a great many narrow stairs, which is why you probably want to take the elevator, even though it costs 2,00 euros. Even so, you have to take the stairs on the way down. If you're claustrophobic, don't do it. The spiral staircase is narrow, and you're bound to keep stopping as people in front of you pause to look at the views through the windows. Also, it's plenty hot in there.

The price seems a little steep to me. It includes the museum, which we didn't do and probably should have. Maybe that would have made it worth the money. But, whether you go in or just admire it from the street, it's worth a stop on your tour of Barcelona.

The Sagrada Familia is without a doubt one of the wonders of cathedral architecture. Although incomplete, visitors are thrilled by the experience. Antoni Gaudí's unique personal style in the service of his fervent religious faith, makes his work the equivalent of that of a modern Michelangelo. Work has been in progress for over 100 years with estimates for completion in 30 years. Gaudí died in the 1920s and is interred on the grounds of his church. He anticipated that the project would involve many decades of work by his successors. He left an abundance of plans, sketches and models for following generations of architects, engineers and other artisans. Guadí anticipated that they would have to solve many of the structural and design problems that he had not yet resolved. Visitors to the sight should not miss the lower "museum level" where valuable photos, details and renderings are on display that illuminate the church's fascinating evolution. This is a tour that one should take more than once in a lifetime, because unlike the completed great monuments, this one is still a work in progress!

Just as Paris has the Eiffel Tower and London has Big Ben, so Barcelona luxuriates in the presence of the Sagrada Familia, the defining masterpiece and lifelong project of the world-famous architect Antonio Gaudi. He undertook the task in 1883 but died in 1926 at the age of 74 after a car accident, his work uncompleted. Gaudi’s intent was to blur the distinction between building and decoration, and this makes Sagrada Familia as much a feast for the eye as an imposing creation. Successive generations of architects have strived to turn his vision of an all-encompassing '20th-century cathedral' into reality. Completion date is now set for 20 years time but even at the moment there is plenty to marvel at.

Sagrada Familia’s conical spires, parabolic arched doorways and freely curving lines are world-famous. The neogothic apse displays Gaudi’s amazing imagination, while the four bell towers provide dramatic views over this bustling Mediterranean port city, are awe-inspiring in their majesty and detail. Take the elevator up into the towers at the new or the old end, and see their construction.

Confined to bed by illness as a child, Gaudi gave his imagination free rein to while away the months. Recovered he completed his education with a degree in architecture although unbelievably he had no strength in mathematics. This didn’t stop him designing robust buildings that went into the realms of fantasy. He used the trees and other aspects of nature as his inspiration. This approach became known as the biological style.

The facade of the Sagrada Familia is a carved monument to nature, with little figures, animals and birds. It is alive, vibrant and beautiful and a reminder that architecture can be innovative and take account of its surroundings rather than just plain bland. Strangely the newer reverse side of the building seems out of character with the front and may be because of different architects involved. Figures instead of being human became harsh and even warlike and out of sympathy with nature!

The pillars resemble palm trees with the tops branching out. What looked like palm fronds decorate the ceiling. Scaffold and even mechanical diggers impede walking through the Sagrada Familia as works continues. Nowhere else that I know off can you see a cathedral under construction. It is a bit off putting though to see iron rods poking out of half finished concrete columns. Somehow I expect a cathedral to be formed out of warm stone rather than constructed like a motorway flyover.

There is a tourist shop with good quality books on Gaudi as well as the usual tourist tack. Although limited access for handicapped people exists, the beauty of the Segrada Familia is external and anyone, even handicapped, can see this from the outside without paying.

My wife is already making plans for revisiting in 20 years time when this all-encompassing '20th-century cathedral' with its innovative biological style design is completed.

Entrance is cheap at three Euros fifty.