Hello 大家好！上周我们讲了西班牙的巴塞罗那，那这周我们将来具体讲讲巴塞罗那最著名的景点之一 -- 圣家堂。

Last week I talked about Barcelona, the largest city of Catalonia in Spain. Today I want to tell you a bit more about the Sagrada Familia, the most famous church of Barcelona which is still being built. It is a very beautiful building, so if you want you can look up a picture of the Sagrada Familia online to know what I mean.

Construction of the church started in 1882 and the current design was an idea of the architect Gaudi. He had his own unique style and combined two architectural styles, known as Gothic and Art Nouveau. He dedicated his whole life to the project, but he died in 1926 when less than a quarter of the project was finished. The construction depended on donations so it progressed slowly, and in the 1930's Spain was in a civil war, which was also a significant interruption for the construction. In the 1950's construction continued and thanks to computers it is now easier to make faster progress. The church should be finished in 2026, exactly 100 years after Gaudi's death.

Although the church is not yet finished you can already visit, and the entrance fee  is used to pay for the construction of the church. I think it is really worth it to go there and visit the church, because I have seen many churches in my life but the Sagrada Familia is really one of the most impressive ones I have ever seen. The decorations of the walls outside are very detailed and beautiful, and when you go inside the shapes of the pillars, ceiling and windows of the church are really impressive. Because of the shape of the pillars inside it almost feels like you are looking at a forest made of stone when you look up, and the windows are made of colored stained glass, so the sun shining through the windows creates beautiful light in different colors. It feels very magical, and I hope I can see it again sometime.

It is a very popular place to visit though, so if you go there you should buy your entry tickets one or two weeks before you plan to go there so they are not sold out. When I am on vacation I like visiting these kinds of buildings because they are very relaxing and the feeling when you are inside is very special. I always think it is very impressive that people can come up with these kinds of ideas and build something like this.

• Online: 在网上；网上的
• Combine: 结合，组合
• Dedicate：致力于，献身于
• Less than：少于...；不到...
• Quarter：四分之一；一刻钟；季度
• Donations：捐赠（复数）
• Progress：进步，进展
• Civil war：内战
• Interruption：暂停；打断；中断期
• Thanks to：由于；因为
• Although：虽然，尽管
• Pillars：柱子
• Ceiling：天花板
• Magical：魔法的；神奇的
• Sold out：售罄
• Come up with：想出，提出（指产生想法、计划、解决方案等）

主播：Daniel

校对：nan_nan