{"id":5817,"date":"2016-04-04T09:14:04","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T13:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/?p=5817"},"modified":"2016-04-05T10:26:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T14:26:31","slug":"immortalization-sagrada-familia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/immortalization-sagrada-familia","title":{"rendered":"The immortalization of the Sagrada Familia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/sagrada-familia.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6144 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/sagrada-familia-300x298.png\" alt=\"sagrada familia\" width=\"300\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/sagrada-familia-300x298.png 300w, https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/sagrada-familia-200x200.png 200w, https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/sagrada-familia.png 381w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Even incomplete, the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia will leave you breathless. The 558-foot-tall structure strikes an alien figure across Barcelona, contrasting the Medieval and Spanish Colonial architecture of the centuries-old Catalonian capital. Zoom in close and you\u2019ll see the angular, hand-sculpted figures lining each of the fa\u00e7ade, seemingly carved out of the stonework, illustrating scenes from the life and death of Jesus Christ. Skeletal buttresses hoist the magnificent structure into the air, lifting the curtain on a stark, fear-inspiring portrayal of the crucifixion. Animals, seashells, leaves, trees, and even bowls of Venetian glass fruit adorn its surface, all creating the illusion of a lush, natural paradise springing out of the stone. The contrast and the detail leave you in awe, but all the more stunning is the fact that as the cranes dangle above the 133-year-old project, you are watching history in the making.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6146 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/sagrada-familia2-300x149.png\" alt=\"sagrada familia2\" width=\"300\" height=\"149\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/sagrada-familia2-300x149.png 300w, https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/sagrada-familia2.png 355w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Considered to be Antoni Gaud\u00ed\u2019s magnum opus, the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia actually began construction in 1882 under architect Francisco de Paula de Villar, as an expiatory (donation-funded) church in honor of the Holy Family (or Sagrada Fam\u00edlia). Yet Villar was fired due to conflicts with the organization commissioning the project, and by 1883 Antoni Gaud\u00ed took the reigns. Gaud\u00ed initially intended to keep it simple and follow Villar\u2019s original Neogothic design, but when the church received an abnormally large donation, Gaud\u00ed threw the old idea out the window and started on a magnum opus that would be remembered for centuries to come. The church is now set to for completion on June 10, 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p>Want to witness Gaudi&#8217;s masterpiece? Try the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/educational-tours\/spain.aspx\">Insider&#8217;s Spain<\/a><\/strong> itinerary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even incomplete, the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia will leave you breathless. The 558-foot-tall structure strikes an alien figure across Barcelona, contrasting the Medieval and Spanish Colonial architecture of the centuries-old Catalonian capital. Zoom in close and you\u2019ll see the angular, hand-sculpted figures lining each of the fa\u00e7ade, seemingly carved out of the stonework, illustrating scenes from the <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/immortalization-sagrada-familia\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[89,88,58,83,128],"class_list":["post-5817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-explorica-news","tag-art-educational-tours","tag-art-history-tours","tag-educational-travel","tag-spain","tag-student-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5817"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6307,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions\/6307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}