Sagrada Familia in Barcelona ‘will be completed in 2026’
Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica has a new completion date of 2026, which will come 144 years after the first stone was laid.
The president of the organisation tasked with completing Antoni Gaudí’s masterwork announced the date last Wednesday, which coincides with the centenary of the death of the building’s architect.
Esteve Camps said they had the money and material to finish the building, including the 172.5-metre central tower dedicated to Jesus Christ, making the Sagrada Familia Barcelona’s tallest building.
Although the building is set to be complete by 2026, work on sculptures and decorative details and, above all, the controversial stairway leading to what will eventually be the main entrance, is expected to continue until 2034.
When work began in 1882 the site was open farmland but in the intervening years the city has grown up around the church. The stairway, which would extend across two large city blocks, would involve dislodging about 1,000 families and businesses.
While some Gaudí scholars dispute it, Camps insists that the stairway was always part of the architect’s plan.
“We are following Gaudí’s plan to the letter, he said. “We are his heirs and we can’t renounce his project. The plan presented to the local authority in 1915, which was signed by Gaudí, includes the stairway.” He added that they were in talks with the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, over the plan, as the local authority has the last word. “I don’t have a crystal ball to tell me when they will make a decision,” he said.
Since its inception, the Sagrada Familia has been dogged by war, neglect and a lack of finance. Most recently, the Covid pandemic led to a two-year