150 year old Church 'Sagrada Familia' in the Making

One of the life's wishful thinking is to visit Barcelena, Spain when this 144 years Sagrada Familia Church is scheduled to be completed by 2026. This was designed by Antonio Gaudi, nicknamed as "God's Architect".  I also wish while I enjoy this and other marvels of Architecture and I must enjoy genuine Spainsh cuisine there.

                               

Gaudi's masterwork: This artist's impression shows how Barcelona's La Sagrada Familia will look when it's finished in 2026  - 144 years after work on it began and 100 years after the architect who designed it was killed.

One of the most wonderfully bizarre pieces of architecture is Antonio Gaudi's Parc Guell in Barcelona. That the famous Catalan architect was able to conceptualize and realize all of those undulating, organic shapes in a pre-CAD era of pencil, paper and T-square is as amazing as the nearly two-million-square-foot site. It took 15 years of building, from 1900 to 1914, before Gaudi was able to see it finished.

                       Gaudi designed the columns to mirror trees and branches          

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (English: Basillica and Expiatory. Church of the Holi Family; is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Spain, designed by Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi (1852–1926). Although incomplete, the church is a UNESCO World heritage Site, and in November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated and proclaimed it a MINOR basilica as distinct from a Cathedral which must be the seat of a bishop.

                                                           The Facade details

One thing Gaudi never lived to complete is the Sagrada Familia church, also in Barcelona. He had taken the project over in 1883, but by his death in 1926, some 43 years later, it was still less than 25% complete. A reported nine architects have attempted to complete the structure since then, with the process interrupted by wars and eventually modernized by the advent of CAD. And now it seems as if architect Jordi Fauli  and his team will be the ones to complete it.

                                                                     Roof in 2009

Check out this amazing animation put together by Fauli and co. of how the finished structure will look as it goes up:

Looks amazing, no? But don't buy plane tickets to Barcelona just yet; they're estimating a completion date of 2026.

During his lifetime, when Gaudi himself—who was nicknamed "God's Architect"—was asked about the Sagrada Familia's seemingly endless construction time, he is reported to have explained that "My client is not in a hurry."