The outside is encrusted with sculpture of saints, plants, and animals, as well as
odd decorations to puzzle about.
Look closely and you'll see that the spires are
tipped not with flowers but with crosses.
Len and Jan's Sojourn in Spain: Barcelona
(Sagrada Familia 2)
Yes, it's not long till Thanksgiving, and here's a
beautiful turkey sculpture to remind us.
There's so much religious symbolism
here that one can't possibly take it all in
in one visit. Even way back then, the dog
symbolized loyalty. A hand with an eye in
the palm represents God's omniscience
and caring; a bee symbolizes virginal
souls; an egg represents the origins of
the Universe; fruits symbolize good
works (Remember "Therefore by their
fruits ye shall know them"?); and the
labyrinth stands for the path Jesus took
to the cross---and the loneliness of the
path from life to death.

All photos on this page
are by Jan.
Only two of the musician angels Etsuro Sotoo of Fukuoka, Japan, who brought  
Gaudi's drawings to life in stone.
Nowhere in the beautiful book, The Temple of the
Sagrada Familia, by Josep Maria Carandell, photos by
Pere Vivas, could I find mention of this image. Could it
be the risen Jesus?
The centurion Longinus earns notoriety for all
time as the man who stabbed Jesus's side.
This is the sea tortoise which upholds one of the
main columns of the Nativity Facade; a land
tortoise supports another column---as in the
ancient myths that say the world is supported on
the back of a turtle.

"Turtles All the Way Down!"
From Wikipedia: Stephen Hawking's 1988 book, A
Brief History of Time, begins with an anecdote
about an encounter between a scientist and an
old lady:

A well-known scientist (some say it was the
philosopher Bertrand Russell) once gave a
public lecture on astronomy. He described how
the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun,
in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast
collection of stars called our galaxy.

At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the
back of the room got up and said: "What you have
told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate
supported on the back of a giant tortoise."

The scientist gave a superior smile before
replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?"

"You're very clever, young man, very clever,"
said the old lady.
"But it's turtles all the way down!"  
Who but Gaudi would think of placing grapes and
fantastic fruit atop the pinnacles of the nave?
Jesus is taken away. Josep Maria Subirachs began
in 1987 stylizing human figures to capture
maximum emotion.
On to Barcelona's
Palau de Musica Catalana