Construction of the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona is scheduled to be completed in 2026; that is, 144 years after the laying of its first stone.
The president of the organization tasked with completing Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece, Esteve Camps, announced the date last Wednesday, which coincides with the centenary of the architect's death, The Guardian reports.
Camps said they have the money and materials to complete the building, including a 172.5-meter-tall central tower dedicated to Jesus Christ, making the Sagrada Familia the tallest building in Barcelona.
Although the building is scheduled to be completed by 2026, work on its sculptures and decorative details, and most notably the controversial staircase leading to what will eventually become the main entrance, is expected to continue until 2034.
The staircase, which would stretch across two large city blocks, would displace approximately 1,000 families and businesses.
Although some Gaudí experts dispute this, Camps insists that the staircase was always part of the architect's plan. “We are following Gaudí’s plan exactly,” he said. “We are his heirs and cannot refuse his project. The plan, submitted to local authorities in 1915 and signed by Gaudí, includes a staircase.”
Since its creation, the Sagrada Familia has suffered from wars, neglect, and lack of finances. Most recently, the Covid pandemic led to a two-year hiatus in construction work.
In 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil War, anarchists set fire to the crypt and destroyed Gaudí's workshop and the plaster models he had made to guide his successors in completing the work. Architect Luis Bonet i Gari salvaged the fragments and Gaudí's models were painstakingly reassembled. Many of the technical details of Gaudí's implementation were later refined by New Zealand architect Mark Berry using software.
The Sagrada Familia Basilica is considered one of the wonders of the modern world, but this was not always the case. Salvador Dalí described its “fearful and edible beauty,” and George Orwell considered it “one of the most disgusting buildings in the world” and noted that the anarchists showed a lack of taste when they failed to blow it up when they had the opportunity to do so.
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