Passion Façade of Sagrada Família, Barcelona, Detail of Christ

Passion Façade of Sagrada Família, Barcelona, Detail of Christ

The Passion façade is so called because it represents the Passion of Jesus, in other words, the pain, the sacrifice and the death, as staged along the twelve stations of the cross, expressed in highly dramatic and emotionally intense sculpture groups.

The façade faces west and therefore receives the last rays of the sun before night falls. That arrangement heightens the symbolic effect of darkness and shadows that haunted the architect. Like the other façades, it has three entrances, also dedicated to charity, hope and faith, and four bell towers, dedicated to the apostles St James the Lesser, St Bartholomew, St Thomas and St Philip, ordered from left to right.

This was the second façade to be built following Gaudí's original project. The architect, in the case of the sculptural decoration is Josep Maria Subirachs and the stained glass by is Joan Vila-Grau.




http://www.sagradafamilia.cat



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD




Works of Antoni Gaudí on UNESCO World Heritage List
http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=320