The Passion façade, Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain (photo)

The Passion facade was recently built. It is located at Sardenya Street and faces west. It represents the passion and death of Jesus Christ. In keeping with this function, it has an extraordinarily bare and austere appearance, with edged geometric shapes. It is formed by a porch of six columns, with three entrance doors, the central of which is divided in two by a central column with the signs Alpha and Omega, located between the four bell towers. Like the facade of the Nativity and that of Glory, the three portals of the Passion are dedicated to the three theological virtues. The sobriety of the facade is also shown by the presence of columns in the form of bones and the sober sculptures made by Josep Maria Subirachs, adding drama to Gaudí's already deliberately funereal conception. The set follows Gaudí's initial project in its general characteristics, but the details are obviously adapted to modern aesthetics. In this sense, the very symbolic iconography of Subirachs represents a total break with the figurative concept of the opposite facade (of the Nativity).