The Sagrada Familia is the most visited building in Spain and the one people arrive at with the lowest expectations of being surprised, because they have seen it a thousand times. Then they walk inside. The exterior is famous; the interior is the thing nobody is prepared for, and it is the reason this is worth a ticket rather than a photograph from the park. Here is how to visit it properly.
What you are looking at
A basilica begun in 1882, taken over by Gaudí a year later, and still unfinished more than a century after his death.
Three facades, each telling a different part of the story and each in a completely different style, because they were built decades apart by different hands working to his plans.
The Nativity facade is the one Gaudí saw completed, and it is an explosion of carved detail, almost organic, dense with figures and animals and plants.
The Passion facade is its opposite: stark, angular, harsh, deliberately austere, and it divides opinion sharply.
The interior is a forest. The columns branch as they rise, the vaulting above them is a canopy, and the whole thing was designed as a structural imitation of trees. Combined with the coloured glass it produces something that photographs cannot convey.
The light, which is the point
This is the single most important thing to know before choosing a time slot.
The eastern windows are blues and greens, and they fill the building in the morning.
The western windows are reds, oranges and golds, and they take over in the late afternoon.
They are genuinely different experiences. The morning is cool and underwater; the late afternoon is on fire.
Neither is correct. Choose one, and know that you have chosen.
The late afternoon slot is the more dramatic and correspondingly the more sought after, which is another reason to book early.
Tickets and what they include
Timed entry is the base ticket and it covers the interior and the museum below.
Tower access is a separate, more expensive add-on with its own timed slot and its own lift, and it is a genuine decision rather than an obvious upgrade; our guide to whether the towers are worth it sets out what you actually see from each.
Guided and audio-guided options cost more and are worth it here more than at most buildings, because so much of what you are looking at is deliberate symbolism rather than decoration.
Concessions apply for various categories and are frequently unclaimed.
Buy from the official site rather than a reseller, and check what the ticket includes before paying more for a bundle.
Practical notes
Arrive at your slot, not before, since early arrival does not get you in early and the queue outside is for people with later slots.
Security screening applies, so travel light.
Dress code is the usual one for a working church: shoulders and knees covered.
Photography is permitted inside and no photograph will work, which is worth accepting early so you can put the phone away and look.
The park opposite gives the classic view of the Nativity facade with the pond, and it is free and busy.
Give the facades their own time, outside, before or after. They are dense with detail and are the part most visitors rush past on the way to the door.
Where it sits among the Gaudí sites
The Sagrada Familia is one of several Gaudí works in the city and it is not interchangeable with them.
The park on the hill is the outdoor one, with mosaics, terraces and views, and it has its own ticketing quirk that catches people out; our guide to Park Güell covers which part actually needs a ticket.
The apartment buildings on the main boulevard are the domestic Gaudí and are a completely different experience from the basilica.
The wider picture, including how the works connect and which are worth your limited days, is covered in our full Gaudí guide.
If you have time for two Gaudí sites, this and one of the houses is the usual pairing. If you have time for three, add the park.
The short version
Book a timed slot as soon as your dates are fixed, because in high season there is no walk-up option worth having. Choose morning for blue and green light or late afternoon for red and gold, and know that they are different buildings. Take the audio guide at least, since almost nothing here is decoration without an argument behind it. Give the facades twenty minutes from outside, and accept that your photographs of the interior will not work.
