Sagrada Família

In front of you rises the Sagrada Família, the church that became one man's life's work. Look first at the Nativity façade, the one facing the pond: it's the one Gaudí saw practically finished in his lifetime.

1An inherited project

The first stone was laid on 19 March 1882, to a neo-Gothic design by the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar. After disagreements with the promoters, Del Villar left the project, and in 1883 it was handed to a young Antoni Gaudí, then 31. Gaudí completely transformed the design and gave it more than four decades; in his final years he worked here almost exclusively.

On 7 June 1926 he was hit by a tram on the Gran Via. Dressed in worn clothes, he wasn't recognised straight away. He died three days later, on 10 June, and is buried in the church's crypt.

2A church that's still growing

The work has always been funded by donations and, today, by ticket sales. In 1936 the workshop burned, along with many of Gaudí's plans and models, which were later pieced back together from fragments. Pope Benedict XVI consecrated it as a basilica in 2010. In February 2026 the last piece of the cross was placed on the Tower of Jesus Christ, which reaches 172.5 metres and makes this the tallest church in the world, in the centenary year of Gaudí's death.

Gaudí is credited with the line «My client is in no hurry». There's no record that he said it, but it sums up the church's story well.

3What to look for

• The Nativity façade, the oldest and the only one Gaudí saw nearly finished.
• The turtles supporting the columns of the façade.
• The Tower of Jesus Christ, the tallest, crowned by the great cross.