Unfrozen in Time

In 1998 I went to Spain, the birthplace of my grandfather Manuel Santalla. The first city I visited was Barcelona. I immediately fell in love with this city of grand boulevards nestled between the ocean and the mountains.

Through my architectural history courses I was well acquainted with the work of Antoni Gaudí, the city’s architect poster child. Initially his work made me and my classmates giggle and considered the buildings bizarre, unattractive and quite frankly, ugly. Soon, however, we understood that in reality Gaudí was a genius, whose mastery of space, form, structure, surface and light rightfully earned him a rightful place in the architectural Pantheon.

The Casa Batlló and the Casa Milà were located within steps of my hotel on the Passeig de Gràcia. They are exquisitely preserved. Casa Battló is a private building, so I snuck in and got to see the courtyard, adorned with ceramic tiles creating a gradation from white to the deepest of blues as it rises to meet the sky. Parts of the Casa Milà are open to the public, including a roof terrace where all the flues and otherwise visual nuisances are architecturally integrated to become a magical landscape.

Here are some images, courtesy of Wikipedia and various other internet sources, of the Casa Milà.

Exterior

Atrium

Roof Terrace

And the Casa Battló, which makes me swoon.

Façade

Courtyard

Then there is the subject of Gaudí’s masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia (Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia,) which remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1926. The image I saw over and over again in the textbooks of the time was engraved in my memory. I was unaware that construction had resumed and upon arrival, I was taken aback to find there had been more building of this building.

My text book photos showed the facade; the center section of the photo. None of the naves had been built. This photo was taken in 2009, which shows even more than what I saw.

Shock soon became elation. This building had been unfrozen in time and it would not remain a relic, but someday it will be completed. Maybe even in my lifetime, which is another reason to live to 105.

Tourists were allowed access to parts of the basilica, including one of the towers. As I ascended to architectural heaven, I captured these images.

Image of the Sagrada Familia by Ernesto Santalla Photography

Barcelona is still one of my favorite cities. I will go back some day and be awed again by this magnificent work of Art and Architecture. I’ll take my camera and see what happens.

You know the drill.

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