The artwork that made me cry

There are only two artworks that had the ability to make me cry, which is interesting because as some of you may know, my habit to cry about everything. I guess some artworks just hit the right spot… but one of these actually made me cry for 10 minutes straight.  

What artwork made me cry? Who is the artist? And how did he do it?

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If you have been to Barcelona, you most certainly get the question “Did you go see the Sagrada Familia?” and, if you did not, you would have arguably: “missed out on Barcelona’s biggest highlight!!!!!!”. 

At first, I did not really understand what all the fuzz was about. It was just a church, sorry, a cathedral. Once I went to Rome on a school trip in my senior year of high school, and for my class classical cultural education, we visited a bunch of churches. The churches we saw were certainly not all that different, I could conclude after having to visit FIFTY OF THEM. So how could one church be so different from those that I had already seen?  

The first time I saw the Sagrada Familia, it reminded me of the few times I visited Paris: if you get out at the metro stop Cité, slowly you are welcomed by the Notre Dame: a very stately, early gothic church. Lots of people visit the Notre Dame to see the Crown of Thorns which would be worn by Jesus during his crucifixion. Others visit it because it is a nice selfie background. Well, everyone can agree that the church is pretty, and a Paris trademark, but that is not enough to make me cry. – (If I am not extremely exhausted and I am reminded of the fact that dogs can die.) 

Similarly to the Notre Dame, the first time I saw the Sagrada Familia in real life, I got out of a metro stop: you slowly see more and more of the building while drowning in a sea of tourists that all come for the same thing: a huge, ‘weird’ church, with a lot of organic structures, ornaments and references, which were hard to see given the annoyingly huge amounts of people. To understand the Sagrada Familia, I really had to visit it. 

A few days later, I came back for the Sagrada Familia. That trip, I had the honor of visiting two more of the artist’s work: Casa Batlló and Park Guëll. Casa Batlló was my first impression of Antoni Gaudí and his work: he designed an underwater-world-home for the family Batlló, with colors reminding you of coral reefs and deep blue seas. With so many organic shapes and references to animals and nature, this home warmed my SI-heart, but still not enough to tear me up.  

On the last day of my trip, I was standing in front of the Sagrada Familia. I would go back to the Netherlands that day, but I had to visit the masterpiece and see it by myself. And well, Gaudi served. When I entered the church, wearing headphones that blasted information about what I was seeing, I was mesmerized: the pillars in the church rose high above me and turned the ceiling into a forest. There were large windows of stained glass of which I was told that, if you visited the Sagrada Familia during the afternoon, the sun would shine though the glass making different colors dance on the pillars and walls, transforming the white pillars into a colorful forest.

The beautiful ceiling of the Sagrada Familia (crying Donna not included):

I realized I had not seen so many pretty colors in my life in a long while, and at that moment I started crying. It was all so serene and warm, that even with hundreds of people buzzing around, it felt like I was there alone. Still, I was probably crying because of exhaustion, but it was the most beautiful and special place I had visited in a long time.  

If you ever get the chance to visit the Sagrada Familia: do it. You do not want to miss out on Barcelona’s – if not Spain’s – biggest highlight. ;)