A modern Gothic: Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona, begun 1882, and caled by its architect before he died in 1926, the "last great sanctuary of Christendom.".
LINKS: Sagrada Familia - Great Buildings Online
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TAGS: Architecture
A modern Gothic: Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona, begun 1882, and caled by its architect before he died in 1926, the "last great sanctuary of Christendom."
4 comments:
Beautiful. Graceful, soaring lines.
It really is interesting that you post this, in light of your article on Gothic structures on Solo.
I was especially interested in the idea that Gothic structures are about letting in light. Because when I think Gothic, I think of the Sagrada Familia and the Dom in Cologne.
Both of these buildings appear dark and forboding to me (although the picture you have chosen - at night - doesn't look that way). The Sagrada Familia looks spidery to me, or like a prickly bush you don't want to put your hand in.
Not to say they're both not hugely impressive - they are - just that I never associated them much with light.
Tim, good points. It should be said that the era in which Gothic architectural expression matched the ideas expressed as I described finished in 1284, with the construction of Beauvais cathedral -- which for some years held the world record for the tallest building; at lest it did as long as bits stopped falling off it.
Gaudi's cathedral was begun some six-hundred year after Beauvais, and uses the Gothic style for a different purpose. It's more 'mannerist' than the original Gothic expression. For myself, Gaidi's Gothic seems to evoke the darkness of the Inquisition more than than it does the 'light of God' -- which given it's location and Spain's religious history seems somewhat appropriate.
A different form of Gothic exopression can be seen in for example the Houses of Parliament, and in any older university buidings, where 'Gothick' is used more as a form of decoration than in any honest form of expression.
The Templo de la Sagrada Familia is Antoni Gaudís masterpiece. Building this neo-gothic cathedral (not to be mixed up with the Gothic cathedral in the Barri Gòtic) is still unfinished. People aim to have the work completed in 2026, 100 years after Gaudí died. The building activities are mostly financed by the income from ticket sales to visitors, different excursions from Barcelona hotels visitors to school trips. Even though the Sagrada Familia is a beautiful building already, work is not even close to being finished. The two facades with each 4 towers still only represent the side-entrances. The front as well as the highest towers and dome are still to be constructed.
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