Travel Journal: Basilica de la Sagrada Familia – Spain

Every two years or so, my organization holds a World Staff Conference (WSC), bringing together staff from all of our 15 offices that are located around the world. Our most recent WSC was this year in late August in Barcelona, Spain! For this trip, I also brought along my mom for a vacation after the conference was done and my friend Jodi, who was also attending the conference as a consultant, also joined us for a few extra days. As usual with my travel journals, I have split up my blog posts in a way that made the most sense for this particular trip. Enjoy!

Catch up on my other posts about this trip here:
Intro – Barcelona, Spain
Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Pals and Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain
Palau de la Musica and the Arc de Triomf
Montjuic and the Olympic Park
Gothic Quarter and the Mercat de la Boqueria
Doors of Spain
Park Güell
Montserrat

**********

I could recommend only one thing to do while in Barcelona, it would be to visit the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. And most travel guides, blogs, websites, etc., will agree with me. Regardless if you are not religious or into architecture, skipping it is a mistake because it has an incredible history and is beautiful.

The Sagrada Familia is an unfinished Roman Catholic minor basilica. Its construction started in 1882, and it is STILL not done. The original architect dropped out of the project shortly after it began due to differences with developers. He was replaced with Antoni Gaudi, who proposed a new, grander design, which has been completed slowly, section by section. For the last 12 years of his life, from 1914 to 1926, this was the only project he worked on. Unfortunately, he died in an accident in 1926. When he died, a close collaborator continued his work until 1938, when a fire destroyed the workshop along with all of Gaudi’s original plans, drawings, and photos, as well as many scale plaster models. Since then, construction has never stopped and has continued to respect the original concept. As of now, it is set for completion in 2026. That was a very brief history lesson, but you can read all about it here.

My pictures really don’t do it justice. I’ve always been fascinated with the amount of detail and meaning that goes into famous and historic works of architecture, but this tops anything I’ve ever seen before. We bought our tickets ahead of time for a specific entrance time, which I highly recommend doing because, based on what I read, the lines for tickets aren’t fun. We did a self-guided audio tour that took a little over an hour. It takes you around the outside and all through the main level inside, section by section, sharing the history of Gaudi’s vision, the meaning behind several details, and more.

When I shared on my Instagram Stories, one friend commented that it was so cool to see it in the present day because she had visited several years ago. This made me think a bit about how we normally view and experience historic places and items, and the fact that the Sagrada Familia is so unique in that it is both old and new. I would love to visit again when it is finally finished.

Even though it might be busier, I highly recommend that you visit in the afternoon. Its main stained glass windows are on the east and west sides of the building to best capture the strong morning and afternoon light, and the afternoon light is gorgeous. A friend and one of the farmers at the conference told me that when he first walked in, he quickly turned around to watch the reaction on his wife’s face, and he said that her jaw literally dropped. I laughed a bit at how dramatic his comments sounded, but friends… I walked in, and my jaw dropped. And I teared up. It is that beautiful and honestly mesmerizing. I so wish that I could bottle up what that experience felt like. This place was so big and overwhelming, yet it also felt so peaceful in there. Gaudi took inspiration from patterns and shapes in nature, so his work contained no sharp lines or straight corners. The inside gave the illusion that you were under a tree canopy. This site does a good job of sharing more about Gaudi’s style and the design of the Sagrada Familia.

Again, there is no way that my pictures do it any justice.