Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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Carrer de Mallorca 401
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adult/child under 11yr/senior & student €14.80/free/12.80
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9am-8pm Apr-Sep, to 6pm Oct-Mar
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Sagrada Família
A Hidden Portrait
Careful observation of the Passion Facade will reveal a special tribute from sculptor Josep
Subirachs to Gaudí. The central sculptural group (below Christ crucified) shows, from right
to left, Christ bearing his cross, Veronica displaying the cloth with Christ's bloody image, a
pair of soldiers and, watching it all, a man called the evangelist. Subirachs used a rare photo
of Gaudí, taken a couple of years before his death, as the model for the evangelist's face.
Unfinished it may be, but La Sagrada Família attracts around 2.8 million visitors a year and
is the most visited monument in Spain. The most significant tourist in recent times was Pope
Benedict XVI, who consecrated the church in a huge ceremony in November 2010.
Top
Sight
TOP SIGHT
Casa Batlló
This is Gaudí at his hallucinatory best: one of the strangest residential buildings in Europe.
The facade, sprinkled with bits of blue, mauve and green tiles and studded with wave-shaped
window frames and balconies, rises to an uneven blue-tiled roof with a solitary tower. Casa
Batlló and neighbouring
Casa Amatller
and
Casa Lleó Morera
were all renovated between
1898 and 1906, and together demonstrate Modernisme's eclecticism.
Locals know Casa Batlló variously as the
casa dels ossos
(house of bones) or
casa del drac
(house of the dragon). It's easy enough to see why. The balconies look like the bony jaws
of some strange beast and the roof represents Sant Jordi (St George) and the dragon. Even
the roof was built to represent the shape of an animal's back, with shiny scales - the 'spine'
