Sagrada Familia#
Sagrada Familia, January 2014, Photo: Hermann Maurer, under CC BY 4.0
The Sagrada Familia is as unique as are other aspects of Barcelona and Catalonia, the province of Spain it is in: The city proper has a population of about 1.6 million, making it the second largest in Spain. The metropolitan area with 5 million makes it the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea. Partially due to its booming economy, but also because of its own language and traditions the wish of the province of Catalonia for (more) autonomy from Madrid has become quite strong. A referendum planned for November 2014 was declared unconstitutional by the federal government, not reducing the tension.