Gaudi's work first intrigued me when I was in Vienna. My Austrian friend Thomas would point his buildings out to me and they were amongst some of the most hideous things I'd ever seen and the Sagrada Familia was no exception.
I just had to see it from the inside with my very own eyes.
That morning, I left my hungover friends wallowing in self pity and arrived 10 minutes before it opened and about an hour after every other tourist in the city.
When the line for entry wrapped itself around the ENTIRE block, I was very close to calling it in and writing it off as a failure. I joined the back of the cue and waited 80 minutes to enter. It wasn't a total waste of time though and I enjoyed some lovely conversation about art with people around me.
Like most Australians, I'm not very religious.
I attended an Anglican high school but I just think the bible is a collection of fairytales for adults.
I feel like I've spent my entire life watching those around me pick and choose what they want from their religion, treating it as a buffet to condem others.
It strange when I got excited about a church of all places.
When you get closer to the building, you notice the 'chaotic mess' is actually a collection of the most beautiful sculptures you've ever seen. Gaudi's attention to detail, his obsession with combining the organic with the man made and the last 25 years of his life that he gave to this building, means that nothing in that church is there by coincidence.
For example;
There are two major biblical scenes sculpted here.
On the side, that faces sunrise, is the nativity scene. This side of the cathedral is beautiful and warm, a true celebration of life.
The opposite side, facing the sunset, is the resurrection of Jesus and his horrific death. It's angular, sharp and bare. It's almost like the church loses all of its body and stands only on clean bones.
Although it's moving, shocking and aww inspiring, it's not the outside that I'll forever remember.
It's how it felt to walk in that building. To see the red marble floors stretch out infront of you, the pillars which Gaudi modeled after trees that twist and branch off creating a forest like canopy. It's almost organic.
It's the stained glass windows illuminating the cathedral with colour that evoke so much emotion within you. Gaudi said that many architects make the mistake of just letting light pour into a cathedral. He wanted the lighting to be just right because too much light and not enough light are both blinding. I became embarrassed when I could feel my eyes misting up.
I don't know if there's a god.
I never before cared to find out if there was some omniscient Morgan Freeman like character that concerns themselves with my day to day trials and tribulations.
There's something about opening yourself to new cultures and experiences that's beginning to make me wonder if I'm far too closed minded.
While I'm not running off to join any cults, I am starting to respect the value that religion as a source of hope, instead of just hate.
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