Over the Top

Well, there it was, in all its unfinished splendor, the church of the Holy Family designed by Antonio Gaudi at the end of his career, the project that consumed him completely, to the point that he lived on the premises, neglected his clothing and personal care, to the point that when he was hit by a streetcar one day, people had no idea this ragged old man was the world-renowned architect whose fame lit up the city of Barcelona. The project was ravaged during the Civil War, and it could have been recovered more quickly if more of the drawings and models had survived, but the truth was that its completion had to wait until the advent of computer-guided stone cutting, so complex were the curves he specified. But now it is being built. It is clearly farther along than it was two years ago when I saw it for the first time. The columns really do make the interior look like a magical forest. Over the top. Way over the top. Wonderful and beyond wonderful.

Gaudi is almost a definition of over the top. The center of the city is studded with his more playful works and the works of his imitators, as well as of earlier and later seriously brilliant architects. And the dream garden, the Parc Guell, where originally the idea was that some great public art would enhance a kind of playground for the wealthy, a subdivision to be populated by gracious gentry living in gorgeous homes, a place to party in grand style. But... life intervened, and the gorgeous houses were not to be built, with the ultimate result that the great public art became a great public park for everyone in the city. The day we saw it, with its fanciful designs in tile and stone, it was full of tourists from everywhere in the world. Over the top. Another story of pushing the limits, getting burned in a way, and coming out the other side with something amazing.

I think that´s why Barcelona continues to love Gaudi. It´a city with a taste for the extravagant and the wonderful. And probably one of the reasons I am so taken with Barcelona. There´s a liveliness in the place, a spirit of adventure that calls to me even when I´m on the other side of the ocean.