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Making little steps to something great and a place of honour which will improve your knowledge and emotions with true and painful facts about one of the most visited place in the world - La Sagrada Família Basilica

La Sagrada Família Basilica is the most visited touristic attraction from Spain, but also in the world, even though the construction is not finished yet.
The building also known as Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, is a church located in the capital of Catalonia (Catalunya) - Barcelona, being situated in the northeast side of Spain.
The original project of La Sagrada Família Basilica was created by the architect Antoni Gaudí which worked on creating it for over 40 years, the last 15 years of living being exclusively dedicated to this building, estimating that the entire plan will take up to a few hundreds of years to be completely achieved.

La Sagrada Família Basilica is not publicly funded as most of the buildings are, but with the help of donations and the money received on the tickets sold for visiting it, in 2009 the budget being up to 20 millions of EURO.
The estimated date when the church will be done is 2026, even though it can be visited nowadays but with limited access.

Even though it might seem like a successful touristic attraction, La Sagrada Família Basilica has been through a lot of ups and downs since it was started to be built back in 1882.
The main creator of this beauty died very brutally in 1926, but the works weren't stopped but continued with the help of Domènech Sugranyes until 1936 when they were interrupted by civil war.
Luckily, not even the war or the violence the church was part of, didn't stop from being built and in 2010 it was hallowed by Papa Benedict XVI who also raised it to a new rank - Minor Basilica. The height of the church is 170m and it has a Roman Catholic origin.

La Sagrada Família Basilica is just one of the many buildings realised by Antoni Gaudí who put a personal touch to every single masterpiece adding unique gothic models filled with originality and fantasy. The basilica represents the most famous and visited creation of Gaudí.
Unfortunately, Antoni Gaudí, also known as the architect of God - died in 1926 being hit very brutally by a tram. Due to being very modest dressed up, people thought he was a beggar and only after he was suffering lots of minutes on the street because no one wanted to help a poor man, it was brought by a policeman to the hospital dedicated to poor people.

The pain didn't stop there as not even the medics wanted to help a poor man so they neglected taking care of him and he died after two days of continue pains.
Not even his childhood it was less painful, as he suffered from rheumatism since it was a baby and that made him being marginalized by the rest of the kids. That's how in a second the hours spent on playing were replaced with hours of fighting against his disease.

A reason why it takes so much for the church to be completely finished is the unique way of creating it: curved lines, irregular shapes, but also uncommon combinations between iron and glass, which made Gaudí become famous for what he was building and very common when you think about Barcelona, the first thing comes to your mind being Gaudí and his masterpieces.

The church is composed of 18 different towers which are dedicated to the 12 apostles, 4 evangelists, Saint Mary, and last but not least, the highest tower assigned to Jesus Christ.
The tower worshipped to Jesus is 170m height and it has a huge cross mounted, the tower being with just one meter smaller than a hill next to Barcelona because Gaudí always considered that his works are not allowed to be bigger than those created by God.
This tower also represents the facade dedicated to sufferings, which are: the pain, the sacrifice and death. That's why this part of La Sagrada Família Basilica describes the most dramatic sculptures from the building and it's composed of 4 towers and 3 different entrances which represent the mercy, the hope and the faith.

The tower worshipped to Jesus it's also the one which is under construction, having the most details and which will be finished in 2026.

Another facade of the basilica is the one dedicated to the glory and it represents the main side of the building, being located in the south.
The name of this part of La Sagrada Família Basilica it's given by the sculptures which are symbolizing the origins of a human being, which are: the encountered problems along with his living, the paths he will follow, but also his purposes in life.
As the other facades, the one worshipped to the glory also comes with 4 towers and 3 different entrances, two of them on sides and only one main, but also an external gallery with 7 columns symbolizing the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit.

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The last facade of La Sagrada Família Basilica from a total of three sides, is the one dedicated to the birth, located on the east.
This one is also known under the name of the facade dedicated to the happiness, the facade of life, or the facade of Christmas.
The sculptures from this side are unique from the others, coming out with a more joyful touch being inspired through the chapters found in the Bible related to Jesus childhood.

The interpretation of all these designs you will find on the building is differently seen by every tourist who decides to visit the masterpiece, but if you thought the church itself is interesting you definitely need to also discover the museum which is inside the building where you will get from a phase to another:

• The first one being when you get captured by the colourful stained glasses and the endless columns which are creating an entire game on the ceiling of the basilica:

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• The 2nd one when you are waiting impatiently for the elevator to get down and be your turn to reach the top of La Sagrada Família Basilica and have the world on your feet:

The access to the top is being made through an elevator which only goes up to avoid the crowd. So when you return you will need to go down the 365 stairs from one of the towers which are very narrow but from where you can enjoy lots of amazing landscapes or discover new things.

If you are afraid of watching how long you have until you arrive at the bottom of the building you better not check it through the tunnel on the center of the tower as you will most probably get dizzy.

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• From the top back to the bottom, from adrenaline to a more peaceful feeling which reminds you how humble you are and that everyone is equal no matter how many cars or houses you have, we get to the 3rd feeling that puts you in a deeper connection to God and where people can pray or just listen to the orisons that can be heard when there is a fixed time o'clock:

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A fact I mentioned a little bit earlier is that next to the basilica you can also find a gallery with more historical information or just different art pieces which are not less impressive:

There is even a shop with lots of different souvenirs, from clothes to art pieces, from books to plates, and so on.

The address of La Sagrada Família Basilica is: Carrer Mallorca, 401; 08013 Barcelona, España - and there are numerous way of reaching it. Either by metro, bus, taxi or just by walking depending on where you are coming from. In our case, we were accommodated on BBarcelona Apartments and we had to walk just 7 mins to reach the touristic attraction. That's why you will notice some shots which are taken over the night - because we also wished to discover it during the darkness if we were staying so close to it. So why not get the advantage of that?

La Sagrada Família Basilica is the most visited monument from Barcelona and it registered 4,5 million tourists in 2017, being included on the UNESCO list in 2005. The building is estimated to be finished in 2026 when there will be also celebrated 100 years since the architect Antoni Gaudí died.

• Antoni Gaudí was once asked by someone: why does he wish to create such a high building if no one will be allowed to see it from the top?
• The answer was pretty simple and heart-touching: because the angels are the only ones who will admire it...

Ok, now I know this post seemed like it's not going to ever end because we got over 60 pics and a few thousands of words but I couldn't resume it more as the entire place is truly breathtaking.
Visiting Barcelona was also my first time going abroad and discovering a different country than Romania, so the excitement and memories contributed pretty much as well.
So I will not judge you if you are not reading it to the end, but if you do I really appreciate you for spending some time in this way.
La Sagrada Família Basilica is also one of the most visited touristic attractions in the world and I've seen a few posts made about it on steemit as well, so you most probably knew some of these details before me but I couldn't hide my new experience and what I lived for 4 days spent in Barcelona, also giving the start to a new series called Barcelona Tour where I invite you to join me in finding out some of the treasures hidden in this city and country.
And if you are asking me - not even now when I was writing this post I managed to realize this was for real. Because I didn't expect to get to visit a new country so soon and just the pictures and videos are the real proof it was not just a beautiful dream.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾

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