Antoni Gaudi, born in Reus in 1852, was a celebrated Catalan architect whose modernist work has shaped the Barcelona we know and love today. His unique and distinctive style is admired and renowned by architects all over the world.
The most famous building by Gaudi, the Sagrada Familia Basilica, finally has an estimate of when construction of it will finish. Joan Rigol, the President of the Sagrada Familia Trust, confirmed that the church may be completely finished between 2026 and 2028.
“If nothing new happens, construction work may finish in 15 or 17 years,” stated Rigol.
The basilica will have a total of eighteen towers, eight of which are currently built. The tallest will be 170 metres high! It should be completed in seven years, making it Barcelona’s highest point…
The Sagrada Familia was designed by Gaudi, but the Art Nouveau architect died much before the building was to be completed. For a number of decades, construction was halted, but in the last twenty years work has increased in order to finish this extremely complex church made out of stone.
The money to finance its construction comes from ticket sales from the more than three million tourists that will have visited the temple this year; a temple that last year was declared a basilica by Pope Benedict XVI.
The church will have a total of twelve bell towers, one for each apostle as Antoni Gaudi indicated. The North facade is dedicated to Jesus Christ’s nativity, and the South one to Christ’s Passion. The East facade will be the last part of the temple to be completed but will picture Christ’s Glory. The basilica’s highest tower will be dedicated to Jesus Christ; it will be placed at the centre, over the church’s crossing within the transept and it will be 170 metres high. This will be Barcelona’s tallest construction…. have you seen it?
