Giant cactus, stalagmites ... Anthill, a stone icicle growing out of the ground ...a writer Pyotr Vail wrote: he called the Sagrada Familia cathedral a “frozen jazz.” Two and a half million tourists a year come to Barcelona to watch and listen to an incredible creation by Antoni Gaudi.

 The architect spent forty-two years of his life on it and did not manage to finish. “My client is not in a hurry,” said Antonio Gaudí. However, let us tell this in order. Antonio Placid Guillem Gaudí y Cournet was born in a small town of Reus near Tarragona in Catalonia. And just in time: just at this time, a royal decree was signed on the general reconstruction of Barcelona. The future architect grew up by the sea, and children’s sand castles can be seen in many of his works – as well as in Sagrada Familia churches. For many years, Gaudi combined work on the cathedral with other projects: he simultaneously built a dozen masterpieces, five of which are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. But for the last twelve years he has only dealt with the Sagrada Cathedral and even slept at a construction site. But he did not finish it, for did not have enough time. In 1926, the seventy-three-year-old Antoni Gaudí was run down by the first tram in Barcelona. They say that he could have been saved, but the cabbies flatly refused to take the untidy old man in dirty clothes.