The Sagrada Familia is a Barcelona church designed by the famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. He started building it in 1882 and if things go as planned the structure will be entire in 2026. Gaudi was a especially religious man.

Building the church was so essential to him, that later in his life he labored on it exclusively, and even moved onto the building site and lived there. He died in 1926 and is buried in a tomb in the church. Gaudi's other amazing architectural projects in Barcelona and hoteles barcelona have become important tourist attractions but the Sagrada Familia is his masterpiece.

During the Spanish Civil War and the following rule of Franco not much job was made on the Sagrada Familia. In fact during that epoch Gaudi's workshop was burned. Fortunately many of his blueprints for the cathedral were saved. While the models he had constructed of the church were smashed, dedicated friends, pupils and supporters painstainkingly pieced them back together.

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One of the motives it has taken so long to build the church is Gaudi's insistence that no government money be used to pay for it. The job is being funded exclusively by donors. These donors contain the thousands of visitors from around the world who pay an access fee to visit the church every year.
When complete the Sagrada Familia will have a main sanctuary for worship and eighteen huge high towers. Elevators may whisk you to the top of 2 of the towers that are already finished for a breathtaking vision of Barcelona.

The front of the church is decorated with more than a dozen scenes from the tale of the Birth of Jesus designed by Gaudi. Every tableau is made up of bigger than life sculptures. You can see a recreation of the Holy Family's voyage to Egypt, the visit of the Magi, the engagement of Mary and Joseph and a ghastly depiction of soldiers murdering all the newborn boys in Bethlehem.

The back of the church has a different set of sculptured scenes. These narrate the tale of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Created by a more modern artist, but remaining true to the plans laid out by Gaudi, these sculptures show Biblical events.

A special element on this part of the church is a huge engraved grid with sixteen squares. Every square contains a digit. There are 321 ways to add 4 diverse numbers from these squares to make the amount of 33, the digit of years Jesus lived.

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Gaudi loved the created earth and used designs from nature in all his buildings and hotel barcelona. A few of the Sagrada Familia's towers appear like honeycombs. The main sanctuary is supported with pillars patterned after the trunks of giant California redwood trees. Its ceiling is sculpted to look like huge leaves. Natural illumination will filter in from above. Gaudi wanted people to feel like they were sitting in the middle of the forest as they worshipped.