Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago.
Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower.
A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster.
Photo: AFP
The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the 177m of Barcelona’s Montjuic hill, in accordance with the devout Catholic faith of famed Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, who took charge of the project in 1883.
“Gaudi did not want to exceed that height,” because the Montjuic hill was the work of God, said Mauricio Cortes, a senior architect working on the construction site.
When the structure is completed and the scaffolding dismantled, the tower is to be blessed on June 10 to coincide with the centenary of the death of Gaudi, whose body lies in the basilica’s crypt.
Photo: AFP
The Vatican has not yet confirmed whether Pope Leo XIV would accept an invitation to the tower’s inauguration.
“Once the cross is installed, the project will be nearly 80 percent complete,” said Jordi Fauli, the architect who has led the work for more than a decade.
The construction board, a private canonical foundation, had intended to complete work on the Sagrada Familia, considered the world’s most famous unfinished building, this year.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed the tourism industry — and with it the key source of income of the most-visited of Spain’s monuments that charge an entrance fee.
Tourists from around the world are now flooding back: 4.8 million visitors arrived in 2024, boosting the coffers of the basilica, which relies on the takings as well as private donations.
Yet the board is reticent to set a new finish date for the remaining work, including the divisive Glory Facade and its four bell towers.
The board’s plan to precede the front entrance by a large flight of steps and a square would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes.
The residents have spent years fighting to halt the plan.
“Our houses are legal,” reads a sign hanging from one of the threatened buildings.
“The Sagrada Familia owns a plot of land; it does not own the rest. So why should it reach my home?” said Salvador Barroso, president of an association for residents affected by the construction work.
Residents say their apartments were purchased legally, and no one warned them that the area could form part of the Sagrada Familia site.
Barroso acquired his home in the late 1980s and only started hearing about the stairway project from 1992, when the Barcelona Olympics transformed the city’s image as a tourist magnet.
“What this is really about is business,” Barroso said of the expansion.
The residents have also questioned the stairs’ place in Gaudi’s original plan. Critics frequently point out that the architect’s models were mostly destroyed during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and say the church has lost its creator’s essence.
Lead architect Fauli, speaking to AFP next to various models of the Sagrada Familia in a room away from the droves of tourists, said that “we are, in all parts of the project, faithfully following what Gaudi wanted.”
Other documents were saved, and a portion of the models were reconstructed afterward by Gaudi’s disciples, he added.
“Gaudi was an extraordinary architect, and it is worth following his project and finishing it,” said Fauli, who hopes to find “a fair solution” for the Glory Facade.
Barcelona’s town hall will mediate the conflict and says any agreement must guarantee a solution for the residents, in a city already undergoing a severe housing crisis.
However, after years of disagreements, an end to almost a century and a half of work at the Sagrada Familia seems closer than ever.
“I hope the dispute is resolved. What I cannot say is whether it will be resolved in the courts or ... sat at a table,” Barroso said.
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
RSS