Sagrada Familia will be the tallest temple in the world in 2026

" We get asked so much [about the completion of construction] that we have to answer something. It's an approximation; we don't have a detailed plan yet. When we talk about ten years, we're talking about what we can build right now, what's in the permits," explained Jordi Faulí, the architect and director of the Sagrada Família project, in a recent conversation in Barcelona with journalists from international media outlets, including the Lusa news agency.

What currently has a building permit and has not yet progressed is the basilica's missing façade with four towers, the Façade of Glory, as well as some chapels and sacristies. These will take at least another ten years to complete, completing the basilica's "high-rise construction" but not the end of the work, as the decorative elements are still missing.

On the other hand, one of the most controversial elements of the project remains outside the building permit: the elevated square and the staircase leading to the temple via the Façade of Glory - designed by Gaudí as the main access - which, in order to be implemented, requires the demolition of residential buildings and changes to Barcelona's urban plan.

The square would, in practice, be a bridge over Barcelona's Calle Maiorca (with cars passing underneath, in a tunnel) and the access stairs on the other side.

"The bridge is indisputable, it is Antonio Gaudí's project and as we are Antonio Gaudí's heirs we have to negotiate it," said last week the executive president of the foundation that manages the construction of the Sagrada Família, Esteve Camps, who assured that the dialogue with the Barcelona city council continues and that he is confident of an agreement.

Esteve Camps did not rule out, however, that the case could end up in court at the initiative of neighborhood residents, which increases the unpredictability of the outcome and the Sagrada Família's schedule.

What is certain, for now, is that on June 10, 2026, the centenary of Antonio Gaudí's death, the Sagrada Família will become the tallest temple in the world, with the completion of the Tower of Jesus Christ and the placement of a 17-meter, 200-ton carved stone cross on top.

The Tower of Jesus Christ (the 14th completed tower of the planned 18) will then reach 172.5 meters, and the Sagrada Família will reach its maximum height. It will become the tallest building in Barcelona and the tallest temple in the world, surpassing the 161.5-meter Ulm Church in Germany.

This tower "is the heart of Gaudí's project," according to the Sagrada Família foundation, which invited the Pope to Barcelona on June 10th and says it awaits a response from the Vatican soon. This would be the second visit by a Pope to the Sagrada Família, after Benedict XVI consecrated the space as a temple in 2010, following the completion of the church's inner nave.

The Sagrada Família has been under construction for 143 years, always with money from visitor admissions and other donations from the faithful, and, as architect Jordi Faulí insisted in conversation with international journalists, "if all goes well," there will be approximately at least another ten years of construction.

Because things didn't always go smoothly throughout this long construction history: financing remained unstable until the end of the 20th century, and the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 led to the suspension of all work, the destruction of Gaudí's own models and drawings, damage to the existing buildings, and even the abandonment of the project for two decades. In the 20th century, the projected completion date for 2026 was scuppered by the impact of COVID-19 on revenue.

Construction gained momentum after the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and the resulting tourism boom in the city, which culminated last year in a record 4.9 million visitors to the Sagrada Família. They generated revenue of 130 million euros (greater than construction costs in the same period) and made this temple the most visited monument in Spain, surpassing places like the Alhambra complex in Granada and the great museums of Madrid.

The other impetus for works in recent decades has been technology, which has made it possible, as never before, to "make reality", in the words of Jordi Faulí, what Gaudí designed or, simply, dreamed.

"We're not interested in creation. We're interested in being good collaborators with Gaudí. I consider myself a collaborator of Gaudí," emphasized Jordi Faulí, who has worked on the Sagrada Família for 35 years (his entire professional life) and now leads a team of 11 architects.

Antonio Gaudí designed the entire project, but he didn't make models of everything, and when he died in 1926, only one of the facades had been completed. A fire in 1936, at the outbreak of the civil war, lost the original drawings and part of the models, so today the architects of the Sagrada Família work based on Gaudí's drawings and writings that had been reproduced by his disciples in some publications and on what was salvaged from the models.

It's about "interpreting these drawings and reading Gaudí's geometry into them," "taking his working method and making it a reality," explained Jordi Faulí, who recalled that the creator of the Sagrada Família "made nature with geometry" and applied "new geometries that no one had ever used in the history of architecture."

"If Gaudí were to see the Sagrada Família today, he would recognize his design. He might have made different details, but he would definitely recognize the whole," and would see "his geometries" in elements like the 17-meter cross that is about to be placed at the top of the basilica, Faulí assured.

For this "Gaudí collaborator", the architect who dreamed up the Sagrada Família would also and above all be "satisfied with the application of the latest technologies" to the design and construction, "which improved the project": "I would certainly have thought of that."

Read Also: Barcelona welcomes 150 Ministers of Culture to define global agenda