140 years on, Gaudi’s church gets go-ahead

IT attracts 4.5million visitors a year despite being in effect a grandiose building site where work has been going on for nearly 140 years.

But now Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica, pictured, has inched closer to completion after finally being granted planning permission by the Spanish city’s far Left council. It came after a twoyear tussle between the authorities and the Catholic church’s trustees, who have agreed to pay £30million for community projects.

The basilica, a functioning church and Unesco world heritage site, is scheduled to be completed by 2026.

Started in 1882, it became the life work of modernist architect Antoni Gaudi who took on the project in 1883 after the original designer quit. He was advised to arrange paperwork but never did so before being killed by a tram in 1926.