Tag Archives: cathedral

Gaudí’s Obsession

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

The first sight I wanted to see once Jorge left was Sagrada Família so we went first thing on Monday.

A little background from Wikipedia:

“Though construction of Sagrada Família had commenced in 1882, Gaudí became involved in 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style—combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms.

Gaudí devoted his last years to the project and at the time of his death in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete. Sagrada Família’s construction progressed slowly as it relied on private donations and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War—only to resume intermittent progress in the 1950s. Construction passed the mid-point in 2010 with some of the project’s greatest challenges remaining and an anticipated completion date of 2026—the centennial of Gaudí’s death. The basílica has a long history of dividing the citizens of Barcelona—over the initial possibility it might compete with Barcelona’s cathedral, over Gaudí’s design itself, over the possibility that work after Gaudí’s death disregarded his design, and the recent possibility that an underground tunnel of Spain’s high-speed train could disturb its stability.“

First, let me say that whether or not you are religious, whether or not you are one for visiting churches, whether or not you are an appreciator of architecture, this is one site that unequivocally lives up to the hype. It’s simply a beautiful space, and we were awed by it and felt truly peaceful when we were there. When this is finished, it will be one of the wonders of the world, and we were marveling that by the time it was done we’d probably be coming back with teenage children!

Gaudí designed the interior to mimic wandering through a forest grove (literally using examples from nature as the inspiration for his forms), and he succeeded fantastically. We immediately felt like we were looking up at enormous tree trunks and not stone columns, even before we read of Gaudí’s intent for the space – it was accessible to every person who visited, and that is a rare and beautiful thing. After we’d examined every part of the interior, we went downstairs into the museum to view the model shop for the ongoing construction and some of Gaudí’s original plans for the church (and his crypt in that last photo). It was a great visit, and I am so glad that it was as wonderful as I had imagined because it was one of the places I was most looking forward to seeing.

In short, GO HERE.

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Magnificent Mezquita

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

On Friday, Jared and I took an overnight jaunt to Córdoba to see the legendary Mezquita-Catedral. We had a great time and made some friends, but I will recap that all tomorrow – first I thought I’d share our photos from the main attraction. The Mezquita (mosque) portion of the structure was constructed and refined from the 8th to the 10th century and was comprised (at the height of its glory) of 1293 columns, and had open doorways to keep the interior filled with light and worshipers in touch with the outside world. When Ferdinand III conquered Córdoba in 1236, he converted the mosque into a church but left the majority of the structure alone and set up a small chapel in one corner (look in the slideshow for the arches that are painted over with christian imagery). Then in 1523, King Charles V ordered that an enormous chapel be built smack dab in the center of the Mezquita at the behest of Córdoba’s bishop (and in spite of protests from the town council).

And there began the controversy of this place. On one hand, the fact that this world-famous mosque was converted into a Catholic cathedral is an enormous middle finger in the face of Islam, and you can’t help but feel that you are visiting something that was once extraordinary but is now irrevocably marred. On the other hand, my old friend Rick Steves brings up the excellent point that it would have been much easier to raze the mosque and build from scratch, so the cathedral in the center actually assured the mosque’s preservation. I also agree with him that current hodgepodge provides an interesting study in the differences between the two religions, and for us it was the most stark example of the melding of Islam and Christianity that we have seen so much in Spain.

To further my conflicted feelings about the place, we visited during Catholic Mass. We were unusually ambitious and got up early Saturday morning so that we could get in for free during Mass (you must arrive before 10AM), which I would highly recommend not only because you save the €8 pp entrance fee, but it’s also pretty incredible to experience the space during worship of any kind. Hearing the booming organ music and Latin singing informed my imagination [ironically] on what it must have been like to experience Muslim prayer here. At first it just felt wrong to be listening to a Catholic Mass, but when it was over I realized how alive the sound had made the space, and I was thankful that we had been able to experience the acoustics and presence of the structure in that way.

It’s a conflicted spot, but that made it so much more attractive to me. Obviously history is never black and white, and visiting places that bring out these conflicts and inspire such reflection is one of my favorite parts of travel.

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Cathedral of Contrasts

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , ,

Anyone who has been to Seville will tell you that the impressive 16th-century cathedral is the main attraction – and it should be, since it’s the largest Gothic cathedral in the world (and third-largest church in Europe). We’re not really big on touring churches in general, but even from the outside it’s pretty impressive, so when we walked by on our way to the Alcázar we put the cathedral on our sightseeing list and ended up checking it out the very next day.

Our first impression upon entering was that it really reminded us of St. John the Divine, and made us a little homesick for our old neighborhood in NYC. It was a favorite place to take out of town guests, and they had a kickass Halloween program…but I digress. At any rate, it was a nice to think for a moment that we were back in New York (though without the winter weather!). Being in lively Spain has made us wish we had some friends here to share it with us, so feeling like we weren’t so far from home was nice for a moment.

The second thing I noticed was that there was a sit-in of local unemployed teachers taking place just past the entrance. They chose an effective place to make their message heard, because I certainly went home and Googled their cause. I was surprised to find out that the protest had been going on since October! That’s some serious commitment, and an interesting foil for the Occupy protests, considering they haven’t been kicked out after all this time. It was also a heaping dose of perspective since we were there as tourists who had been traveling for as long as they had been protesting the loss of their jobs.

Maybe it was because of that protest, but the disparity between the richness of the cathedral and the relative poverty of those who most likely labored to built it resonated with me, especially when I examined the carvings on the organ. I’m guessing the figures are supposed to be sinners, but to me it looked like the enormous organ was resting on the backs of impoverished citizens. It’s only fitting then, that Columbus’ tomb is also proudly displayed within the cathedral (whether his bones are inside is another story), since he is a figure that is seen as both a hero and villain – depending on which eyes you are using.

Nevertheless, the cathedral was beautiful and inspired me to snap a lot of striking photographs. Everything was enormous and intricate – from the 7,000 pipe organ to the High Altar depicting scenes from Jesus’ life that is so covered in gold leaf that I thought it was solid gold. After we had seen everything in the main cathedral, we set out to climb the Giralda, which is now the belfry but was once the minaret of the mosque that was demolished and replaced by the current cathedral (are you seeing a theme emerge?). It wasn’t a super arduous climb since the path is composed of 35 ramps rather than stairs, and there were several lookout points to break up the ascent. I probably could have done without the obnoxious teenage tour group that was counting each ramp as we went up, but that’s another issue.

The views at the top were AH-MAZING. We have learned at this point in our travels that the best way to get truly oriented to a city is to see it from the highest possible vantage. We could see all of Seville, and for that I probably would have paid the admission price just to go up the Giralda.

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