Spain Study Tour

Marc symbol

As part of the McDaniel Plan, everyone has to do a Jan Term, and I have always wanted to use my Jan Term as a chance to travel more, so I went on the Spain Study Tour. We had about 20 McDaniel students on the trip along with Dr. Deveny and his wife Isabel. We went to three major cities: Madrid, Valencia, and Barcelona. It was a great time!

Obviously, there were many great things on the trip, but one of my most memorable moments was seeing “La Sagrada Familia” (“The Holy Family”) in Barcelona. It’s this huge cathedral that is still under construction and will not be finished until 2030 if I remember correctly.

Basically, the building has three different fronts in which it depicts important moments from the Bible. The side that we entered on depicted the birth of Jesus. It was awesome because it used interesting symbols like the doves which tend to represent the Holy Spirit in art. The door on this side was also designed to look like it had ivy covering it. The other side that we saw was a cubist depiction of the crucifixion which I was not a fan of, but I can appreciate the amount of work it took.

The best part, of course, was seeing the inside of the cathedral. It was so airy and light inside. The ceiling looked like it was sparkling. There were cool symbols some of the apostles like a sphinx and a lion.

Rainbow stained-glass windows

Out of all the cathedrals we visited, “La Sagrada Familia” had the most beautiful stained-glass windows. There were some set up in a mosaic pattern (for which Gaudí, the architect, is well known) that went from cool colors to warm colors. It was like walking through water and fire. At one point, I sat down on a bench and sat in the warmth of the most beautiful rainbow light coming from the windows. It was so beautiful!

Normally, I am not one for admiring architecture, but this building made me feel comfortable, free, and happy. In Spain, I really learned the power that art can have on people. I know “La Sagrada Familia” changed me forever.