La Sagrada Familia

I guess you either like Gaudi or you don't, there's not much room in between those two options. Ofcourse he created some quintessential landmarks that considerably contribute to the city scape of Barcelona, but spending too much time in and around them makes me kind of seasick. It's interesting to read about his method of designing and to see from what organic material he got his shapes, but what eventually evolved from all this, strikes me as nervous to the degree of hysteria, highly emotional manierism which always pleased the Spanish, but not at all to me.
Buildings like La Pedrera and casa Batllo never fail to remind me of the work of the Dutch artist Anton Pieck and the famous creation, the amusement park de Efteling.

His most in-ignorable structure is la Sagrada Familia, on which he started working in 1884 and which is still unfinished today. Ofcourse, the architect died before he could finish it, there was a war, crises and poverty, but even for the mediaeval peoples it took less time to finish a huge cathedrals, without all the technical advantages Gaudi had over them, and his succesors have to an even higher degree. When the Barcelonese want to espress that something is a story without an end, they say "it's like a sagrada familia".

Looking at the eastern facade of the structure, one might wish that Gaudi would have finished the whole thing before he died, because the sculptures of Josep Maria Subirachs seem to have been done in a sort of sinsiter Cubism style very much outdated already when completed in 1980. Apart from that, it is out of tune with the part Gaudi put down and furnished with sculptures and decorations all done in natural Montjuich stone, which have acquired the 'patinage' of time, making everythink look more attractive. On that other side a lot of concrete has been used, and of course those funny sculptures. But maybe I'm overlooking something here, and maybe there's somebody among you who can make me see the light.












La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi'nin en taninmis eserlerinden biri. Ama hala bitmemis durumda, 10 yil oncesinden hatirladigim kadariyla pek gelisme kaydedilmemis. Neden oldugunu anlamadik. Halk artik bitmeyen bi is olunca "Sagrada Familia'ya benzedi" diyormus.

Binayi gezerken The Alan Parsons Project'in Gaudi adli cd'sini de dinleminizi oneririm.