The Wisdom of the Perruqueria Masculina de Barcelona

I had an appointment with a barber (Perruqueria Masculina) for a haircut. (His barber pole was all the way from Wisconsin!) He was just down the street from the amazing Gaudi La Sagrada Familia Cathedral. As I settled into the chair we conversed (keep in mind we conducted this conversation with my college Spanish and his semi-Catalunyan and Andalusian Spanish. Thus....I will sort of translate.)
"We have just been to the La Sagrada Familia down the street. Increable! Fantastico! Muy Grande! I raved.
"Si...es muy bonita y grande! Pero.....Porque??

If Dr Suess had designed a cathedral, this would have been it. The design and feeling of this place is beyond anything I have ever seen. Its only rival is St. Peter's in Rome. St. Peters has the weight of history, besides being just fantastic. La Sagrada Familia has the vision of Gaudi. Makaila described it as a sand castle with wet sand dripping architecture. That is pretty close. I am not even certain where to begin and when I do try to give you a picture, it will be inadequet. Perhaps photos are the only way.

 The cathedral was started in the 1880's and still has a few decades to go. I was reading an up to date guide book and even it did not mention that the main part of the sanctuary was finished. It is done. Yet, there are still a few more tremendous spires to top the cathedral, one for Mary and one for Jesus. Just last year, Pope Benedict was here to celebrate Mass and dedicate the cathedral. They show the video of the event in the museum and it is awe-inspiring.

What you have to do is arrive before 9 am and get in line outside and then pay about $18 to see the place. We found out that you could take the elevator up in the spires for a few bucks more and then walk down through these almost medieval type spiral steps. We went for that too.

Gaudi has been the guiding visionary of this project and he died in the 1920's. He is buried underneath the church, and one can view the spot and there is a movement afoot to give him sainthood. I suppose one of his miracles can be the cathedral itself. To walk into the main sanctuary with its marble floor and soaring, dreamlike towering worship area is beyond description. The video on the project mentions that he created or pioneered his own mathmatical concepts as to how to support the building. It looks as if soaring marble arches are holding up everything but it is really rebar with brick and plaster stuff covering the steel rods. There is light everywhere.

There are three main entrances, on depicting the life and family of Jesus, one depicting the Passion and one to be....which will be the Glory. The statues of those Biblical scenes are startling as they surround the grand entrances and tell so much just by their mere presence.

One could spend days and weeks in the Cathedral and still be awed by the scope of this project. When we took the elevator onto the top of one of the spires, we could look at the roof of the cathedral and see that there is a whole city of workers scurrying about (well, it they are paid by the hour, they are not scurrying) as they put the vision of the architects into creation. Most cathedrals took centuries to complete and so viewing an actual-being-built-as-you-stand-there cathedral is quite thrilling. And we went from the top of the spires to the museum in the basement to see the ongoing workshop of creative talent beneath the cathedral.

The price of admission helps pay for its completiong. The time and expense of getting here was worth it, this is so impressive. But, the Protestant boy in me is constantly wondering......

We viewed the video of the dedication of the Cathedral from just last year. There was the King and Queen of Spain, dignitaries, church dignitaries, crowds of people and the Pope. And within the dedication was Holy Communion and I realized that were I present, I would not be welcome to partake. And the words of my favorite perruqueria masculina in Barcelona come back to me..."Porque?"

Bob and the wise Perruqueria Masculina (who also said I had great hair, which is so true)

Peace,   Bob