Antoni Gaudi, the architect of the fabulous Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Catalonia, liked to use organic shapes of nature in his designs. Hence the pillars in the Sagrada Familia cathedral bear a striking resemblance to trees, and the interior of the spires in the church bear the stamp of Gaudi’s life-long fascination with embodying nature in architecture since these spiral stairs resemble the interiors of spiral shells.

You’ll see what I mean if you check out the interior and exterior views of this spiral shell of the Architectonica genus, shown below, and compare with the Sagrada Familia spiral.

Check out the macro photo shot straight up and through the Architectonica, and compare with the view inside the Sagrada Familia spire at the bottom of this story:

If you are curious, here’s the way the Architectonica shell spiral looks from the outside:

Incidentally, the views inside the Sagrada Familia spire shown at the top of this story and below were shot hand-held at ISO 51,200. You can read the related blog story to see why this was my best technical choice in the circumstances, and the only way to get a photo in the location—and an approach that would not have been feasible even a few short years ago.