Yvonne R. is taking deep breaths
I’ve visited Barcelona several times and visited La Sagrada Familia each time. To be honest, since I’m neither an art student nor a huge lover of Gaudi, it never made much of an impression on me. Still unfinished, it’s covered in scaffolding and often mobbed with tourists, making it hard to appreciate. Climbing up the stairs will give you a better view of the intricate detail, but again, feels very much like a proscribed, guided tour.
My one exception to this stands out as my favorite memory of the building. I was walking around the city, already admiring the early evening charm of closing bocarrias and the mildly amusing awe of walking underneath Torre Agbar, when I realized my route home took me only a few blocks away from the church. Since I hadn’t seen it since my visit a couple of years ago, I decided to wander by. At night, La Sagrada Familia changes completely. There are few tourists, and even the construction seems to fade away. The shadows along the building accentuate the facades while the streetlights play across the stones. I stood there for nearly half an hour, entranced in a way that the tours and daytime viewings couldn’t compare to.
In my opinion, this is how La Sagrada Familia should be seen.
