Picking up from where I left off in the last post, we headed outside. The crowds were just as thick but now they are peering around corners looking for the bathroom and some souvenirs. We were looking for the same. We found them, much to our relief. There are five different types of stone used in the construction. Inside, the largest of the columns, the ones supporting the Jesus Tower were made from porphyry. This stone is a very dense fine grained volcanic material the strongest of all the stone used in the building. It comes from Iran and is purple with white inclusions. Basalt, the next strongest stone is used in the bases for the evangelist's towers and is sourced from Catalonia and Italy. Many types of granite are used including blue granite from Brazil and white granite from Madrid. Towards the exterior weaker stone is used such as limestone and sandstone. This can come from France, England, India or South America. A specific sandstone was used in much of the early workings. This is Montjuic sandstone which is particularly weather resistant. The quarries closed in the 80's and now stone is reclaimed from older buildings and wherever else it can be found. A great amount of effort has gone into sourcing a similar material from somewhere else in the world, The color of the different stone is more evident outside where old and new construction co-mingle.
A golden Christ at the top of the Resurrection facade shows the happy ending
A completely different style than that used on the nativity facade at the entrance
Each stone is hand finished
Moving down from the top we see the crucifixion
Four of the 18 towers that will eventually rise up
The bounty of the earth
Grapes!
The tallest tower will be just shy of 172 meters, more than 560 feet.
More of the story
The trial
A newer area and the stone in clean and bright
An unexpected blast of color
It has been 323 days since we began our Migration
