marksabout

After deciding last year that 14 euro was too much to pay to enter Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia church, and getting home to Sydney and deeply regretting it, I wasn’t going to miss out this time. It’s not that 14 euro is that expensive, it’s that it’s a church, a one room monument dedicated to the lord. It took me nearly 3 months to go, when you live in a city you start to become complacent about the attractions – I can see the church from my back terrace and also from my building’s rooftop. Wikipedia says that the Basílica y Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia (Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) was consecrated as a minor basilica, an interesting name for this quality of building.

Some detail...

More detail...

Annnnnyway, it was about a month ago that I went to see the Sagrada Familia, and the other day, in order to inspire some blog writing, I decided to check out a modernist hospital at the other end of Avinguda Gaudí which runs diagonally from the Sagrada Familia to the hostpital’s entrance. Due to it marking the other end of a street named after Gaudí, I had wrongly assumed that the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau was another of his masterpieces, it’s not. It’s designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner who also designed the Palau de la Música Catalana, another building that I should share. Mega cool. The walk along Avinguda Gaudí is interesting – it’s hard to know whether or not the shops are named for Gaudí himself, or for the street. Probably a mixture of both, it’s hard to imagine the pious man endorsing the use of his name for a Salon de Jocs (essentially a gambling hall) or even an Internet cafe for that matter.

Tasteful without being Gaudí

The jury is out on Gaudí’s hairstylists (perruqueria).

After passing all shops Gaudí, I was disappointed to arrive at Hospital Sant Pau to find what is so common for older European monuments:

Renovations.

Renovations.