Even incomplete, the Sagrada Família will leave you breathless. The 558-foot-tall structure strikes an alien figure across Barcelona, contrasting the Medieval and Spanish Colonial architecture of the centuries-old Catalonian capital. Zoom in close and you’ll see the angular, hand-sculpted figures lining each of the façade, seemingly carved out of the stonework, illustrating scenes from the life and death of Jesus Christ. Skeletal buttresses hoist the magnificent structure into the air, lifting the curtain on a stark, fear-inspiring portrayal of the crucifixion. Animals, seashells, leaves, trees, and even bowls of Venetian glass fruit adorn its surface, all creating the illusion of a lush, natural paradise springing out of the stone. The contrast and the detail leave you in awe, but all the more stunning is the fact that as the cranes dangle above the 133-year-old project, you are watching history in the making.
Considered to be Antoni Gaudí’s magnum opus, the Sagrada Família actually began construction in 1882 under architect Francisco de Paula de Villar, as an expiatory (donation-funded) church in honor of the Holy Family (or Sagrada Família). Yet Villar was fired due to conflicts with the organization commissioning the project, and by 1883 Antoni Gaudí took the reigns. Gaudí initially intended to keep it simple and follow Villar’s original Neogothic design, but when the church received an abnormally large donation, Gaudí threw the old idea out the window and started on a magnum opus that would be remembered for centuries to come. The church is now set to for completion on June 10, 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death.
Want to witness Gaudi’s masterpiece? Try the Insider’s Spain itinerary.