141 years later, why construction of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia is still to be completed

Rome wasn’t built in a day, they said. Neither was the Sagrada Familia in Spain’s Barcelona. In fact, the Spanish basilica, perhaps one of the biggest tourist sites in Barcelona, has taken over 140 years to complete.

And if you thought, it’s finally done now, think again; it is expected to be completed in 2026 – the 100th death anniversary of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who spearheaded the design of the church. He was once quoted as saying, “My client is not in a hurry.” He was talking about God.

As the cathedral nears completion – five of the six towers have been crowned – here’s a look back at the history of the structure and why it’s taking more than 141 years to be a fully-completed site.

How close to completion is the Sagrada Familia?

After laying the foundation stone of the cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in 1882, the Sagrada Familia is now one step closer to completion.

Last Thursday, workers placed the sculptural piece on the fifth tower representing Evangelist John, symbolised by an eagle figure. The previous day, they achieved a similar milestone by crowning the tower dedicated to Matthew.

“The four towers of the Evangelists are finished! Soon we’ll be celebrating this building milestone!” the church announced in a Facebook post on Friday.

For those who don’t know, each of the cathedral’s towers is dedicated to one of the four evangelists, and these recent additions, crafted by the sculptor Xavier Medina-Campeny, complete the quartet: Matthew as an angel, Mark as a lion, Luke as an ox, and now, John as an eagle.

EN_Today the final sculptural piece was put on the tower of the Evangelist Matthew, represented by a human figure, and work will continue tomorrow, crowning the tower of the Evangelist John with the figure of the eagle
More information: https://t.co/jDBcfcnhu2 pic.twitter.com/AqsnzUhle7

— La Sagrada Família (@sagradafamilia) September 27, 2023

An inauguration mass will be held at the cathedral on 12 November, when the four evangelist towers will be illuminated. They will stay lit through Christmas, the church said.

The sixth tower, the final one, representing Jesus Christ, is to be completed by 2026. It will stand at 172.5 metres tall (566 feet) and will be finished with a 17-metre-tall (56-foot) four-armed cross, according to the cathedral.

But what’s with the long holdup?

The famous Roman Catholic cathedral is perhaps taken the longest time for a church to be built. There have been many reasons why this structure has taken 141 years and counting to be finished.

To grasp why it’s been over a century in the making, one will have to turn back the pages of history. The first delay to the construction was in 1926 when Antoni Gaudí, the man who spearheaded the design and construction, tragically died. At the time, only a quarter of the construction had been completed. He had lived to see only one of the holy space’s iconic bell towers finished the year prior.

But, Gaudi had been aware that his grand plans for the church wouldn’t be completed in his lifetime – and he spent a lot of time developing deeply detailed 3D models to ensure whoever the project was passed on to would know exactly how it was supposed to look.

His accidental death derailed any progress entirely for over a decade.

This tragedy wasn’t the only one to beset the structure. In 1936, civil war broke out in Spain, during which anarchists broke into Gaudi’s office and smashed his models and burnt his plans. More devastation came as 12 people involved in the construction of the holy site were killed during the war.

These horrible incidents pushed back the work on the structure and no real progress was made until the end of the war in 1939.

In the years of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship of Spain, the Sagrada Familia saw several architects taking charge and also a problem of donations.

In 1939, the year the Civil War ended, Francesc de Paula Quintana took charge of the work during which the staircase on the Nativity façade was built as well as the foundation was laid for the Passion façade.

When Quintana died in 1966, Isidre Puig i Boada and Lluís Bonet i Garí took charge. However, 17 years later, the responsibility was passed down Francesc Cardoner i Blanch and two years later it once again saw a change when Jordi Bonet i Armengol took charge.

In the subsequent years, construction continues at the Sagrada Familia site, with the central nave vaulting being completed in 2000.

However, work hit a hurdle in 2007 when the Spanish government tabled proposals that would see a high speed rail network run underneath foundations that were almost a century old. Questions were raised about how this could affect the structural integrity of the building.

However, this issue was put to rest after the officials insisted the underground tunnels would not hinder any ongoing work.

And on 7 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI even consecrated the Basilica for religious worship and designated it a minor basilica.

Work was progressing at a good pace until March 2020 when construction had to be halted owing to the COVID-19 healthcare emergency. Construction only resumed at the site in October of the same year, but pushed the deadline for completion backwards as the team behind its completion try to cover lost ground.

There’s now uncertainty over the team meeting the deadline of 2026, owing to a new problem – the staircase that will run up the Gloria façade. The problem is that to construct this staircase the team will have to demolish at least 3,000 houses around the basilica.

The residents, however, aren’t willing to give up their homes, insisting that the staircase was never part of Gaudí’s original plans. As Albert Herrando, aged 81, a resident whose house in under threat, was quoted by Artnews as saying: “We’ve been here for 43 years. We don’t want to leave.”

The residents’ fate lies in the hands of the Barcelona City Council, who has yet to take any final decision on the evictions.

What’s the history of Sagrada Familia?

The history of the Sagrada Familia is long and winding. While the foundation of the church was laid in 1882, the call for it was made much earlier – in 1874 by Josep Maria Bocabella i Verdaguer, a devout Catholic and seller of religious books, who wanted a temple devoted to the Holy Family in Barcelona.

In 1877, a religious organisation that Bocabella founded hired Francisco de Paula del Villar to drawup plans. He proposed a neo-Gothic building, and in 1881, Bocabella’s association secured a parcel of land that, at the time, sat just outside of the official city limits of Barcelona. The following year, on Saint Joseph’s feast day, the first stone of del Villar’s Sagrada Família was laid.

However, it didn’t take long for Antoni Gaudi to replace del Villar. However, he was dismissed for failing to reach an agreement regarding the cost of materials.

Gaudi’s design for the Sagrada Familia has been controversial – revered by some and hated by others. In fact, British author George Orwell called the church “one of the most hideous buildings in the world.”

Others have likened it to a giant castle, or an underwater forest of coral, or a masterpiece plucked from the pages of science fiction. However, you see the structure, one can’t dispute that it’s a marvel. It attracts tourists from all over the world – more than 2.8 million visitors flock to the temple each year to take in the architectural marvel that is the Sagrada Familia.

With inputs from agencies