Sagrada Familia Nears Completion: A Skeptic’s Conversion Inside Gaudí’s Masterpiece

Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral in Barcelona, is almost finished. Last year, it became the tallest cathedral in the world; a few weeks ago, the central tower was topped with its crowning finial. It rises unchallenged over the flat and uniform rooflines, a marvelous hallucination, under construction since 1882. Its designer, the brilliant and iconoclastic architect Antoni Gaudí, would be pleased to see the structure rise to completion, since it was just a stump when he was run down by a tram in 1926. It’s a work of staggering complexity and detail, unlike anything on the planet, unless you include giant wasp hives.

But you should include wasp hives, because the cathedral resembles nothing more than a massive concatenation of towers extruded from the hindquarters of Brobdingnagian bugs. I don’t like it.

About the Author

James Lileks

James Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com.

Featured Tags

Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral in Barcelona, is almost finished. Last year, it became the tallest cathedral in the world; a few weeks ago, the central tower was topped with its crowning finial. It rises unchallenged over the flat and uniform rooflines, a marvelous hallucination, under construction since 1882. Its designer, the brilliant and iconoclastic architect Antoni Gaudí, would be pleased to see the structure rise to completion, since it was just a stump when he was run down by a tram in 1926. It’s a work of staggering complexity and detail, unlike anything on the planet, unless you include giant wasp hives.

But you should include wasp hives, because the cathedral resembles nothing more than a massive concatenation of towers extruded from the hindquarters of Brobdingnagian bugs. I don’t like it.