Barcelona’s unfinished Sagrada Familia basilica is not only one of the world’s most famous sights, it’s also one of the most famous construction projects—and now it’s legal, after 137 years of dodging the law.
The Barcelona city council granted the permits to the committee that oversees the construction on the Unesco World Heritage building, now scheduled for completion in 2026, the 100th anniversary of the death of Antoni Gaudi, its architect. Even unfinished, it is Barcelona’s top visitor attraction.
The lack of permit was discovered in 2016, but has not actually halted construction. An archivist discovered that Gaudi had applied for a building permit to the authorities of San Marti, the then-independent town where the building is located, but the local council apparently never replied or issued a permit.
