Temple of La Sagrada Familia

Gaudi's final piece of work before he was tragically killed in an traffic accident. the church, or should we say the temple, was perhaps one of its kind in the entire world, while we have different churches around the world with varying design, they can still be somehow classified to a certain period or style of expression. but the Sagrada Familia was something entirely different and simply made ones jaws dropped to the ground!!!

we are curious on why the name "temple" instead the more common "church" is used throughout in Spain despite the fact that this is supposed to be a Roman Catholic Basilica.

three facades that it is supposed to have, Gaudi's completed Nativity facade is hugely different from the Passion facade. while both are remarkable piece of architecture, the question of whether the temple ought to be completed or to be left as originally incompleted to preserve the pureness of Gaudi's works remain to be highly controversial.

the Passion facade, completed by Gaudi, when observed closely, reveals immensely delicate work of art, but when viewed from a distance, can not help but think that it's the face of an unnamable being that only appears in the darkest of one's dreams.

the duality of the image in front was troubling...why was a place for the worship of God modelled in such way?

the vortex...

according to our spanish friend, the building they are living in is a pre-war (Spanish Civil War)building and it still maintains some very nice character. We think the place was absolutely marvellous!

this photo was the last photo taken on our first day in Spain. just loved the decorative balustrade so much! at the top of the staircase is a glazed skylight, when during daytime let in abundant of light to light up the stairwell.

spain is a very interesting country, while we have seen and learned a lot during our travel, the experience we had and the feeling we had towards it were so much different from other countries, hard to explain at this point, but hopefully can explain in more detail in subsequent blog entries...

it's like one's inner consciousness has been drawn towards, and connected to an invisible vortex...

the gothic cathedral

located very much in the centre of the old town area, the Barcelona Cathedral was being built from 1298 and was not finished until the late 19th century. set amongst the convoluted lanes and alleyways of Barri Gotic, the cathedral serves as a good reference point in navigating one's orientation. on the day of visit, the front facade was under renovation with scaffoldings all over having printed the main sponsor responsible for the works - Samsung of Korea.

that shows how much the equillibrium has shifted over the centuries...

upon checking on some background information, this was in fact an original site for a Roman basilica dated back to the 4th century, while pondering fate of the original structure, foundation and all that remains, found this rather interesting sign on the floor near one of the column in the Nave...

now, that looked pretty obvious as a sign indicating a location of importance...

a map? who needs a map?

when we were walking inside the Gothic Quarter, despite having a map bought from the tourist information, we managed to quickly disorient myself. if it wasn't for our Spanish friends to show us around, we could have lost inside the maze of streets.

strangely, once we put away our maps, and start to look at the buildings and its immediate surroundings, it becomes much easier to identify the streets and location as the area was well defined by various landmarks, open squares, nodes, intersection of streets. Relying on our primal sense rather than overflowing information makes more sense.

these days, aren't we presented with a little bit too much information for comfort? where's our instinct gone?

streets in Barcelona

streets were filled with people, how many were locals, how many were visitors, can't really tell. but the streets were vibrant with life.

In the old town area, particularly around the Barri Gotic, one can actually spend at least a full day there, and begging for more. Small shops which still has that certain individual character, not yet engulfed by the global brandnames, can still be found in inconspicuous alleys.

the La Manual Alpargatera, a local catalan shop specialised in handmade shoes, with its friendly staff was one such that would make you contemplate the lack of variety in our everyday shopping malls these days.