In time for the holiday season the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona has lit up a 5.5-tonne star at the top of its newly-completed Virgin Mary Tower, marking another step toward completion of the Gaudi masterpiece, now under construction for 138 years.
The new tower, at 138 metres, is the ninth to be completed of the eighteen planned by Antoni Gaudi when construction started in 1883. Fund-raising, wars, Gaudi’s death in 1926 and especially the Spanish Civil War have interrupted the work many times, and the pandemic’s effect on visitor tickets, the basilica’s main source of construction funds, has put an end to hopes the work could be completed by 2026, the anniversary of Gaudi’s death.
Still, the past thirty years have seen far more progress than in the past, including completing large portions of the interior, making possible the use of the church for services as well as for visits.
And controversy continues: in the early years, it was marked by controversy over Gaudi’s unique designs. Now the controversy is over whether the architects who have worked on the project since his death have been faithful enough to his plans, a large portion of which were destroyed during the Civil War. Unesco’s World Heritage list, at least so far, only includes the work completed in Gaudi’s time.
Whenever it is completed, the central spire, yet to be built, will reach 172 metres, making Sagrada Familia the tallest church in the world.
