There is still no end in sight for the construction of the Sagrada Familia after 139 years, according to the architect in charge of Antoni Gaudí’s basilica in Barcelona.
A finishing date of 2026, the centenary of Gaudí’s death, had been set as a target but delays caused by the building’s closure during the pandemic have forced the work to be abandoned. Entry tickets are the main source of funding for the building works, which have been in progress since 1882.
“We can’t give any estimate as to when it will be finished because we don’t know how visitor numbers will recover in the coming years,” Jordi Faulí, 62, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
The basilica, which has become the incarnation of unfinished business, was designed to have 18 towers, with the tallest 172 metres high.
The second-highest, which is 138 metres and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was officially inaugurated today with the illumination of a 5.5-tonne star on its highest point. It is the tallest of the nine completed towers and the first to be inaugurated since 1976. One local group has described the star as “aesthetically horrible”.
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Faulí, the seventh chief architect of the church since Gaudí’s death in 1926 after he was struck by a tram in Barcelona, had been expected to oversee its long-awaited completion. However, doubts hover over whether his tenure will outlive the works. “I would like to be here for many more years, of course, but that’s in God’s hands,” he said.
The pandemic led to the basilica’s closure in March last year for almost a year. The foundation that runs it said all work except for the Virgin Mary tower would be suspended until 2024, and most of the workforce was put on furlough. Officials have said full-scale work cannot resume while visitor numbers remain low. While 4.7 million people visited the Sagrada Familia in 2019, this year there have been only about 764,000.
The building has faced many challenges in its long history. During the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, construction stopped and many of Gaudí’s design plans and models were destroyed.
Disputes have raged over what has since been built, with critics saying it is not Gaudí’s work. Unesco has granted world heritage status only to the Sagrada Familia’s crypt and one of its façades, both of which were built during Gaudí’s lifetime.
Locals have complained that large numbers of visitors are destroying the area. They also oppose the foundation’s plans to build a vast ramp and stairway leading to the entrance, which would involve demolishing up to three blocks of flats — directly affecting more than 1,000 families.
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Faulí said that if he could ask Gaudí one question, “I would ask him about his underlying intentions and what feelings he wanted to communicate through his architecture”.
