In lower than a 12 months and a half, the centenary of Antoni Gaudí’s loss of life will likely be right here. Confronted with this reality, especially dedicated enthusiasts of Catalan architecture might already be planning their festivities. However we will be positive the place the actual prespositive is felt: the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, Gaudí’s most well-known constructing, which — as of tomorrow — has been underneath construction for 142 years. When it first broke floor in 1882, Gaudí wasn’t concerned in any respect, however when he took over the challenge the following 12 months, he re-envisioned it in a distinctive combination of the Gothic and Artwork Nouveau kinds. The remaining, as they are saying, is history: a troubled, unpredictable history continuing to at the present time, defined by architecture-and-history Youtuber Manuel Bravo in the video above.
Although it isn’t but complete, you possibly can visit Sagrada Família; certainly, it’s lengthy been essentially the most popular vacationer attraction in Barcelona. The experience of marveling on the cathedral’s astonishing diploma of element and not-quite-of-this-Earth structure is definitely worth the value of admission, which has helped to fund its ongoing construction. However you’ll appreciate it on a excessiveer level in the event you go along with someone who can clarify its many unusual features, each architectural and religious — someone with as a lot knowledge advert enthusiasm as Bravo, whom we’ve previously featured right here on Open Culture for his movies on Pompeii, Venice, the Nice Pyramids of Giza, and the Duomo di Firenze.
With Sagrada Família’s pyramidal form, Bravo explains, Gaudí “hoped to suggest a connection between the human and the divine.” Its three façades are dedicated to the start, loss of life, and eternal lifetime of Jesus Christ, to whom the central and tallest of its deliberate eighteen towers will likely be dedicated. The cathedral’s exterior alone constitutes an “authentic Bible of stone,” however it will probably exhaustingly prepare you to step into the interior, with its “beautiful play of area, gentle, and color.” As Bravo places it, “the professionaltagonist right here is the area itself,” envisioned by Gaudí as “an enormous forest” involving no un-nature-like straight traces. All of it presentcases “the combination of aesthetics and efficiency” that defines the architect’s work.
Bravo’s video runs a bit over twenty minutes, however you may spend a lot, for much longer appreciating each facet of Sagrada Família, these completed in Gaudí’s lifetime in addition to these completed by the numerous devoted artisans who’ve continued his work for nearly 100 years now. The architect “knew fairly effectively that he wouldn’t dwell to see the temple completed,” says Bravo, therefore his having “left behind so many models and drawings” for his successors to go on. They’re working on a 2026 lifelessline, however as Bravo notes, given the interruptions inflicted by COVID-19, “that date appears not likely.” However then, has there ever been as not likely a constructing as Sagrada Família?
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Take a Excessive Def, Guided Tour of Pompeii
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Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His initiatives embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities, the guide The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll via Twenty first-Century Los Angeles and the video collection The Metropolis in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Faceguide.