Gaudi's, and Barcelona's, most famous building is of course the Sagrada Familia. When the Exeimple real estate opened up, it was a perfect opportunity to erect a massive church, similar in size to St. Peter's in Rome. But there the similarity ends; with Gaudi at the helm it was also to be a culmination of his individual, modernista style. He started work on the church in 1883, and grew increasingly obsessed with the project. In 1911 he stopped taking any new commissions, and moved into the church to focus exclusively on this project. He lived on bread, water and prayer alone. He was run over by a trolley in 1926, and the far from finished project was frozen.



The church was planned to have three facades, one for the Birth, one for the Passion, and one for glory. Each was to have four soaring spires, and collectively the twelve would represent the apostles. Four taller spires would then be added to represent the four Evangelists, with a massive central spire topping the whole thing to represent Jesus.

Antoni Gaudi is of course the most famous of these Barcelona architects, although by no means the only one. Largely because his architecture is so accessible, and just so weird, he has become extremely popular with everyday people. His reputation among architects is less secure, because his work is so different from the minimalist style of architecture that dominated the twentieth century. If you judge his work by architecture's most famous maxim, "form follows function", then clearly his work is a failure, as his wavy walls and riot of decoration have nothing to do with the function of the building. But they are certainly fun to look at and really liven up the city. If nothing else, they are a boon to Barcelona's tourism industry.