Sagrada Familia Gold. Barcelona, Catalunya, 2009
I thought I’d dig back in my archives for something a bit different for the picture o’ the day. When I made this image a few years ago, I was going through a “play-with-the-Photoshop-filters” and a “put-a-border-on-everything” phase, as you can plainly see. I always kind of liked the composition–and the fact that I caught a cargo ship between the cathedral’s construction cranes as it was leaving the port.
The iconic towers on the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, as it is known in Catalan, have grown since this was taken and the hoped-for completion date is now 2026–exactly one hundred years after Antoni Gaudí’s death by tram car on the Gran Via of Barcelona. (Gee, I’ll likely live to see the dedication ceremonies–barring the unforeseen, of course!)
Oh, and to dispel a notion I–and many others–actually held for some time…our word in English “gaudy” does not actually come from the weird and gaudy nature of Gaudí’s (pronounced gow-DEE) architectural designs–as much as we’d all like to think so. The word was around a few centuries before Antoni’s time and has other origins. When I first saw his work, though, it sure seemed like a pretty tight etymological fit!
And now to wax romantic and nostalgic, some words of song from another famous Catalan…
Mediterráneo
En la ladera de un monte,
más alto que el horizonte,
Quiero tener buena vista,
Mi cuerpo será camino,
le daré verde a los pinos
y amarillo a la genista,
cerca del mar, porque yo,
nací en el Mediterráneo,
nací en el Mediterráneo,
nací en el Mediterráneo…
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