A Living Immersive Art Experience in San Francisco

The Gregangelo Museum Compared to House

on the Rock and Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia:

Photo by Zoart Photography

I’m a tour guide at the Gregangelo Museum, and one of my favorite parts of every day is answering wildlife flattering, comparative questions such as: Have you ever been to House on the Rock?” My answer is always no, not yet or I wish ! So I’ve had to do a little research on the place as it is unfamiliar to me.

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House on the Rock: The Grand, the Strange, the Spectacular

Photo courtesy of House on the Rock

House on the Rock is a legendary attraction in Iowa County, Wisconsin, near Spring Green. Designed by Alex Jordan Jr. and opened in 1959, it started in 1945 and evolved into an enormous architectural fantasia. The Infinity Room juts 218 feet out over a forested valley, supported by nothing but air. Inside are the world’s largest indoor carousel complete with 269 creatures, 182 chandeliers, over 20,000 lights, and hundreds of mannequin angels, but it can’t actually be ridden. There’s the Heritage of the Sea, featuring over 200 model ships and a 200-foot-long sea creature locked in an epic battle. Stroll the Streets of Yesterday, explore mechanical musical machines, and wander through room after room of eccentric, immersive installations, mixing antiques with theatrical creations. So now when visitors say our museum brings House on the Rock to mind, I reply with the grin of a Cheshire Cat: 

" Honestly, our entire place could probably fit inside a single room there.”  Knowing they’ll be perplexed by the journey ahead.

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The Gregangelo Museum: A Tiny Exterior, an Endless Interior

Video courtesy of SF Gov TV

At the Gregangelo Museum we’re the opposite kind of magic. Built by hundreds of artists over four decades, today about 16 to 20 artists still work 3 to 4 days a week, continuing our unfinished artistry with no end in sight. We’re hand-made, immersive, theatrical and not a museum of antiques or fine art. There are no collections, no masterpieces, no traveling exhibitions. So the genre of the visual art is all left to the visitor’s imagination. The stories that emerge from our visitors come from the heart.

One visitor’s line captures the scale of it perfectly:

“When I left Gregangelo Museum, I turned around and looked at

the tiny facade and wondered how did that multiverse fit in there”

That sense of unexpected vastness, born of creativity, continually inspires me when I give tours.

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Sagrada Familia by Gaudí: Monumental Legacy Under Construction

Photo courtesy of Sagrada Familia

Another mind-blowing and masterful place guests often compare us to and often even call or message us from while they’re there at Sagrada Familia by Gaudí in Barcelona. This unfinished basilica, begun in 1882 and taken over by Antoni Gaudí in 1883, is still under construction, aiming for final completion by roughly 2026 to 2034. It blends Gothic revival with curvilinear Art Nouveau in a structure unlike any other. Gaudí’s ambition and the centuries-long effort must echo the energy visitors feel here: passion, unending work, creative momentum. When guests mention this, I often exclaim:

“Wow, flattered! No direct inspiration here, but I suppose what connects us is the spirit of living creativity. Sagrada Familia and our museum

are both works in progress. One on a colossal scale;

ours small and intimate, but overflowing with purpose and life.”

So when people draw comparisons between the House on the Rock and our Gregangelo Museum, here’s how I frame it:

If House on the Rock is a sprawling, sensory overload palace of oddities,

we’re its whimsical, pocket-sized cousin always evolving, always a surprise.

If Sagrada Familia is a monumental spiritual creation carved in stone, we are its playful poem, handmade, mosaic-like, created by many passionate hands over time.

I love hearing these parallels. They reinforce how unique our ongoing creation truly is. Thanks to every visitor who brings such delightful echoes of wonder and wonderful remembrance into our halls, making each journey an Immersive Art Experience