A-Z Blogging Challenge 2024: U is for Unique and Upclose

Looking back through my travel photos I see that in many places we visited there was, on our agendas, an Abbey, Cathedral, Chapel, Church, Convent, Monastery, Mosque, Pagoda, Synagogue, Temple or other place of worship. As we travel along the road I often take snaps of God's houses we pass by. These buildings range from ordinary to ostentatious. 

For the Blogging from A to Z April 2024 Blogging Challenge my theme is Gods' Houses. During April I invite you to join me for an online tour of Gods' Houses from my digital albums.

When I was planning my U post I thought I'd share some photos of a few unique buildings and some upclose images from other buildings. Then yesterday I realised that I hadn't indexed the photos from one amazing and definitely unique church we visited in 2012. I was captivated by this building and captured many images

That Church is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. Here are some of my snaps.

The Sagrada Familia dominates the skyline in Barcelona

I couldn't find a spot where I could take a photo of the whole building
so I snapped an image of an information board.
The Basilica should look like this by 2030

This was the best I could manage for an exterior shot

There were crowds both outside and in

There are many features on both the exterior and interior.

Another coloured feature on the exterior. Most are natural stone carvings

Some of the embellishments are rather spooky

Moving inside - a colourful plaque for Matthew

and a plaque for Mark

Stairs behind locked gate?

Towards the altar

A central feature

Columns rising to the ceiling

Looking up at the ceiling

Balconies all around

A spiral staircase

So many tourists

Back outside (I think)

Another Crucifex

Baby Jesus?

There are multiple entry points

The pond opposite the building provides opportunities for reflection

Gawdy Gaudi

10 October 2012

We returned to Barcelona on our cruise ship today. Although we took a similar tour "Gothic and Medieval Barcelona" to one of those we took last week we gained a different perspective by having a different guide and we visited some different sites.  Although it is neither Gothic or Medieval one of the sites that was again on our agenda was Gaudi's Sagrada Familia.

Although some of Gaudi's work is a trifle gawdy it certainly is unique. The Sagrada Familia is a mish-mash of styles yet I was so impressed by the building; I could easily spend a whole day and more studying its features. Here a few snaps we captured.

To be finished

Voices of Angels

2 November 2012

An hour's drive north-west from Barcelona is the Benedictine Monastery of Montserrat.

Perched  on the hillside 2/3 the way up the 1200 metre mountain is the monastery complex. After a 10km drive up a narrow winding road from which we were afforded spectacular views we reached the crowded carpark; thankfully our coach was able to park near the entrance of the complex. The other options to reach the site are a cablecar or railway. We also passed some intrepid cyclists who were peddling up the long access road. I was happy to ride in comfort and drink in the incredible views on the way up.

The drawcard of this site is the Black Madonna that is housed in the monastery's ornate basilica. As well as being a tourist destination the monastery is a popular place of pilgrimage for Catholics from all over the world.

The entrepreneurial monks have turned their modest old monastery site into a tourist venue that boasts a hotel, retreat centre, gift shop, bottle shop, cafeteria, restaurant and a funicular railway to the top of the mountain. There is also a choir school for boys aged 9-14 that provides a choir for holy celebrations.

Each day at 1:00 pm a group of choristers gives a short recital of Gregorian chants in the Basilica. As I love sitting down activities and am partial to Gregorian chants sung with angel voices I settled myself in a pew and sent Mr Geniaus off to buy me a takeaway sandwich for lunch. Together with several hundreds other tourists and faithful I enjoyed the recital that unforunately lasted for only ten minutes.

Choirboys in front of the Black Madonna