WOW!!! Lots of photos!!! From my last blog #14 24/10/25 12.30pm to finish off. With my online ticket from Get Your Guide I bought back in Aus, I am about to enter the beyond amazing Basilica de la Sagrada Familia where after going through the airport-type screening, I can walk through to the mezzanine (inside the security fence, but still outside the monument). I’m in awe of what I’m seeing but not sure what to do. Without noticing, a young guide was standing next to me (Thomas). He helped me download the Sagrada Familia app (Google Play) for all the media connection & narrations. Thank God he was there. Everything flowed after that. Now I’m not going to write everything that I experienced & came across. Firstly, I have no words that can describe the amazing structure before my eyes. Beyond words & comprehension. In total awe. Antoni Gaudi at 31yrs old was in my opinion beyond comprehension in his vision for his temple, later to be unified as a basilica of a gothic type of perfection. Look at the scale of this structure by comparing the people within & around it.

You must read the book I bought in their museum to grasp the many details, etc in this basilica. I’m awe struck at everything that my eyes scan to. How can anyone design the engineering, physics & still get the construction right. If this is not the paramount of human design/ construction on earth I don’t know what is (forget the pyramids, Great Wall of China, etc). I hope you can get a grasp of this basilica, inside & out. The stats are beyond comprehension; there will be 20 towers when completed & with the central tower (under construction will reach 172.5m high, named Tower of Jesus Christ) & the 2^nd highest tower, St Mary’s Tower at 138.5m high completed now. 12 of the towers will represent the 12 apostles. I was able to take the tower lift option located within St Mary’s Tower & that is high .. for a great city viewing & you are welcomed to exit by taking the spiral stone staircase all the way down, to which I did gracefully & carefully but didn’t count the steps (above a hundred easily). I don’t believe my photos show you the real insights to this structure, but I hope you can get at least a gist of it. Feel free to immerse yourself into the details as a means of what my eyes are seeing. You will see one photo (bottom right) with a large cross on its highest tower. This is what it will be when this tower is completed.

This basilica has all the sculptures & religious items from the bible on the external faces of the structure & there is so much to see externally, whereas the internal areas are full of open spaces & light to resemble the peace & solitude of prayer. As you enter the internal areas, you are left standing in disbelief of the stone columns, stained glass windows, the roof where it is far too much for your eyes to fathom. The darkest columns (4 of them at 22.2m height x 2.1 diameter) are made of Porphyry stone (a hard purple-red volcanic stone, highly prized from Egypt & extremely strong in compressive forces) & these will carry the entire central tower (Tower of Jesus Christ) & form the centre piece of the structure. The darker grey columns are of Basalt (18.5m x 1.75m); the light grey columns are Granite (14.8m x 1.4m) & the lighter columns of Montjuic stone (11.1m x 1.05m) with the walls of Sandstone. The columns leading to the ceiling resemble the shape of trees with their branches spread out to support the roof structure, quite some 30+m high. How do you engineer & construct stone column trees? The 4 Porphyry columns support the transept vaulting (30+m high) which glows of rich gold with a central skylight & is the Throne of God. The Tower of Jesus Christ continues above it to its eventual height of 172.5m. Gaudi even designed the furniture & prayer benches (pews) & so many more internal items on display.

The centrepiece is the ‘altar-like’ stage, with the enormous pipe organ pipes standing high above it & everywhere is covered with natural light. When you walk behind this ‘altar’ there are low windows forming a curved wall. Looking through these windows you can see below, the real sacred church alter & pews (The Crypt) & the organist playing the organ. Near the altar is the tomb of Antoni Gauci who worked on this basilica from 31yrs old right up to his death in 1926, when he was hit by a tram (Born 1852 – 1926 = 74yrs old). Barcelona gave him a royal sendoff & dedicated his resting place in the Crypt. The centre bottom photo is the window looking down into the crypt & the pipe organ player. The top right photo shows you the small window looking into the crypt below. The top centre photo shows you the altar with the magnificent Jesus & cross sculpture suspended above with the pipe organ tubes behind the altar.

Walking through to the other side (Main entrance in the future) you can see even more external statues & biblical symbols of teachings plus the enormous bronze doors. Each door represents certain events of Jesus & one of the doors has different sized fonts of the Lord’s Prayer written in 49 other languages than the main language in Catalan. The detail on these doors is truly amazing. Gaudi tested a lot of bells to get the tones he wanted for the bell tower & eventually was able to secure a myriad of tubular bells to reach all the octaves of the keys of a piano.

To repeat, I don’t believe my photos show you the real insights to this structure, but I hope you can get at least a gist of it. I took far too many photos to upload as well. To do this monument in a real sense & with the tower viewing it took me 3hrs & I could have stayed longer. I also managed to do a prayer before the alter for a great Yamba lady, Edie who I found out today passed away in her 90s. She was an icon in Yamba & I loved seeing her every time. I’ll miss her. As stated earlier the 2^nd highest tower, St Mary’s Tower at 138.5m high is fully completed now & I took the special lift up to the viewing platform within to take the photos of the surrounding Barcelona, noting this structure is the highest in Barcelona. Taking everything possible into my memory I literally spiraled down the volume of steps to the ground floor.

With some trepidation I left this magnificent basilica & in the hope I can retain all that I saw firmly in my memory. I kept looking back at this structure as I casually walked away. If you read my last Blog #14 you would see the sights, I came across going to & from this basilica & well worth mentioning. Of course, I did a lot more walking after & overall, I managed to do 26, 274 steps = 20.42klms. Finished off with a great pizza & a pint of beer. Finally in bed at 11.30pm after blog typing & a part of my sleeping problem being the basilica reminiscing in my mind like a video loop. The bottom photos show you the completion & the right one shows the status Oct 2025 construction as I walked away.