You are now in front of the Great Doorway or Portal. This will be the main entrance to the church once the Façade of the Glory is finished. Have you seen the portal’s enormous bronze doors? Each one weighs over two thousand kilos. You can go out through one of the side doors to get a better look at them. They are the work of Josep María Subirachs, who inscribed upon the front the beginning of the second paragraph of The Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread” in fifty languages, starting with Catalan. I like this idea, because it illustrates the universal nature that I always wanted the Sagrada Familia to possess, open to all people of the world.

But don’t let’s get distracted by the outside… there is still lots to see inside! You mustn’t leave here without seeing the enormous bronze sculpture, with various concave and convex shapes, that stands in the middle of the tribune. This statue is also by Subirachs, and it is a three-metre tall St. George, or Sant Jordi, the patron saint of Catalonia. It was placed there in 2007, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the saint´s proclamation as patron saint of the Catalans.

With Subirach´s typical style of gaps and volumes, the armour hints at the body of a young man with a Hellenic head, tilted downwards to gaze at the viewer, while at the same time controlling his energy. You will have noticed that he is not on horseback. This is because he was inspired by Donatello´s St. George, which shows a young soldier standing upright.



(c) (R) 2013, MUSMon com S.L.
Text (a) Diego Laforga Marcos (2013)

Picture:
Source: Own work
Author: Carlos Marcos (2013)