Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Gaudí began this utterly surreal temple in 1882, and it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was originally intended to be a modest, neo-Gothic church, but it has become the most famous building in Barcelona. Gaudí broke away from the reigning neo-Gothic style of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries and imbued every element of the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia with symbolic meaning. Turtles form the base of columns (the Chinese symbol of order within chaos) and the pillars are palm trees. The most outstanding feature of this building is its Baroque style, plus the mixture of colors and the diversity of materials used (plaster, ceramics, mosaic, iron and many types of stone).

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