The completion date for the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona has been announced

The famous Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona will be completed in 2026. A new completion date has been announced for Antoni Gaudí’s basilica, but construction of the huge, controversial staircase will take another eight years.

Barcelona’s Basilica of the Sagrada Familia has received a new completion date of 2026, that is, 144 years after the laying of the first stone, writes The Guardian.

The president of the organization tasked with completing Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece announced the date last Wednesday, which coincides with the centenary of the building’s architect’s death.

Esteve Camps says builders 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 the 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.

When work began in 1882, the site was open farmland, but over the years the town grew around the church. The staircase, which would have spanned two large city blocks, would have required the relocation of approximately 1,000 families and businesses.

While some Gaudí scholars dispute this, Kamps 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.” He added that they are in talks with Barcelona Mayor Jaume Colboni about the plan, as local authorities have the final say. “I don’t have a crystal ball that can tell me when they will make a decision,” he said.

Since its founding, the Sagrada Familia has suffered from war, neglect and lack of finances. Most recently, the Covid pandemic led to a two-year hiatus in work at the site.

Before the advent of mass tourism, the work had to be financed solely by donations from repentant sinners, making the cash flow unpredictable and many doubting the work would ever be completed. Poet Joan Maragall described the basilica as “the poetry of architecture… a temple that will never be completed, that is constantly being improved.”

For decades, tourism has guaranteed a stable income, with around 5 million visitors a year paying 25-40 euros per visit. Just over half of the €125 million it brings in goes towards completing the work. How the rest is spent remains a mystery because the church is not required to publish its accounts.

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 produced to guide his successors when the work was completed. Architect Luis Bonet i Gari salvaged the fragments and Gaudí’s models were painstakingly reassembled. Many of the technical details of Gaudi’s vision were later refined by New Zealand architect Mark Barry using aviation software.

The Sagrada Familia is considered one of the wonders of the modern world, but this was not always the case. Salvador Dalí described its “terrifying and edible beauty”, while George Orwell called it “one of the most disgusting buildings in the world” and commented that the anarchists showed a lack of taste by failing to blow it up when they had the opportunity.