The towers of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia church are finished after 144 years of work

World the last tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família, one of the most famous church buildings, was completed last Friday, reports news agency AFP.

The last piece of the 17-meter high cross made of glass and steel was lifted to the top of the central tower dedicated to Jesus. Now the tower reaches a height of 172.5 meters, and at the same time Sagrada Família became the tallest church in the world. Until now, the tallest has been Ulm’s 162-meter cathedral in Germany.

Architect Antonio Gaudin The construction of the church designed by

Although all 18 towers of the church have finally been completed and the scaffolding will be dismantled during the spring, finishing work continues in the interior of the church, which is estimated to take another eight years.

Construction work has been done with income from tourism. The Sagrada Família is the most popular attraction of all the churches in Spain. In 2024, 4.8 million visitors visited the church. The entrance ticket without guidance costs 26 euros.

Gaudin according to the original plan, a huge staircase would be built in front of the main entrance of the church, but its completion is uncertain.

When the church began to be built 144 years ago, there was undeveloped pasture land around the construction site. Since then, the city has grown around it, and now there are two residential blocks on the site of the planned staircase.

Their residents and the companies operating in the buildings have opposed the demolition of the houses to make way for the stairs. Barcelona’s local authorities have so far not made a decision on the fate of the blocks and the staircase.

St. Isaac’s Church in St. Petersburg is known in the past as an eternity project, which has become the Finnish saying “it was built like St. Isaac’s Church”. For the Sagrada Família, however, it clearly loses in the years of work. The construction of St. Isaac’s Church began in 1818, and it was completed in 40 years.