Carlos Pulido | Marcela Riqueiro Carbia | Mary | Joseph

I stare up at the bold intricacy of the facade, looking for the symbols and stories. As I start to walk away, I see what appear to be golden statues of Mary and Joseph on the grounds. As I get closer, though, I see that they are real people. Marcela Riqueiro Carbia and Carlos Pulido were so inspired when they came from Argentina nine years ago, they decided to add to the attraction by painting themselves and posing, as still as stone. On sunny days, they may see hundreds or thousands of people reacting to Gaudí's creation, which UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site. "Sometimes people's mouths just drop open when they see the whole thing, or they point to an unexpected detail," Carbia and Pulido tell me.

WHEN GAUDÍ DIED unexpectedly in 1926, after being hit by a streetcar on his daily walk to Catholic Mass, he left no mentored successor, and work stopped for a while. He left many plans and models, but he had been known to improvise as he worked. During his life, Gaudí had been reviled and revered, and with his death, many thought the Sagrada Familia should stay as it was: unfinished. Despite many obstacles, work did resume. Then, in 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, much of Gaudí's workshop was destroyed, and people spent years trying to piece together the remnants of models. There's a local story that says rats chewed a hole in a wall, uncovering a hidden cache of Gaudí models, which are used today as guides.