Sagrada Familia

Has anyone else noticed that Picasa has several new editing options? (Or maybe I'm just behind.)  Anyway, it's been fun to play around and 'edit' my pictures.  For all who know me, they know I'd rather hang the above picture on my wall than a regular picture of a church.  But enough on that...

The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona deserves a bit more attention that one picture in a previous post.  A little background: Antoni Gaudi started working on this church in 1882... and it's still unfinished.  It was surprising to learn that Gaudi was actually a very devout Catholic.  It seems that so many artists from the church (like Michaelangelo) did the work because it paid, but they weren't always satisfied with the spiritual side of things.  He died about 40 years later with only a quarter of the church complete.  Since then, other artists have picked up the project, and the building continues to progress.  There's a structural plan (see picture) of the finished project, but each architect really gets to design how they want, following the overall feel of the building.  Kind of a cool concept.  It's scheduled to be finished around 2026, funded by private donations and entrance fees.  

As you can see in the model above, the final building will have a central spire that currently doesn't exist.  So when complete, the church will look even bigger than it does today. 

You can see the details of one of the walls.  It reminds me of a drip sand castle. 

More dripping. 

Another side of the building completed more recently.  It represents the Passion, with a very geometric style.  

The inside is supposed to give the feel of a forest.  You might be some sense of that from the pictures.  It definitely doesn't feel like a typical Catholic cathedral.