These days Antoni Gaudí is celebrating. June 13th is Saint Anthony of Padua. Patron of bricklayers, master builders, constructors, of armchair psychoanalysts and mortar. You can find Gaudí at the very top of his friend Jesus's tower. Celebrating on life's scaffolding. Having an oily herring sandwich, a cold beer, and the dessert of an eternal roll. Do you see him?

Everyone I know is trying to decide whether they are satisfied, or not, with the Pope's visit and the enthronement of Antoni Gaudí as a global icon. I also live in contradiction, because Leo XIV says things I like but represents an institution that seems archaic, hypocritical, and opaque to me. But after the superlative spectacle of the Sagrada Família, I believe the papal visit has a clear winner, and it's not so much Leo XIV as the Barcelona-Catalonia binomial, a territory of roots and modernity, of dreams and revolts, which with its oily identity challenges the political and religious limits that uselessly try to bridle it. So much so that on Thursday, seeing the kings of Spain on TV, I didn't feel they were there to appropriate everything, as always, but rather they seemed small, small before the great modernist bastion, watching helplessly the takeoff of a superior form of Catalanity, which is too old, too modern, too beautiful, and too delirious to find a place in such a worn-out container as monarchical and constitutional Spain. Felipe's face said: I'm here as just another tourist.I am probably going further than Gaudí himself, so Catalan but so ecumenical, would wish. But I allow myself to recall the comment he made after Miguel de Unamuno visited the temple and confessed that he did not like it: “No Spaniard likes it”. The celestial appearance of the master from Reus by means of drones, observing the culmination of his work, was a triumphant image, the triumph of the solitary madman, the typical Catalan dreamer, who is greater than kings and popes, and who gives us a seal, a tattoo on the skin of the country, at a time when the country, and its capital, is at risk of becoming dull, with the fear of not recognizing oneself and of not identifying one's roots and those things that give it meaning, above centuries and people.Precisely, the people who attended the event at the Sagrada Família, who are the same people who have followed all the Pope's events, were perfect representatives of the ultracatholic contingent of the country: the high Barcelona bourgeoisie (more like fans of the Burgos Cathedral), the Pope's youth from Opus Dei schools and a profuse representation of Latin American communities, too recent to understand the depth of the foundations of the Sagrada Família. In general, they were all papal enthusiasts, people little or not at all connected with Gaudí's universe and all the cultural, religious, architectural, and civil substratum behind it. All these sectors also form today's Catalonia, and all of them, willingly or not, were swallowed, like luxury extras, by the visual and sonic wave, inevitably Catalan by the force of facts and centuries, and projected as such, immediately, throughout the world.Gaudí is also inevitably Catalan, and his work is explained not only by him, but by the country that saw him born. But his charm is that he combines with everything; he is admired by Catholics and secular people from the five continents. Sharing him with the world is a joy and a privilege, because the world wants him as he is, that is, Catalan. And since he is already dead, there is no danger that Madrid will steal him from us through scrapes and tax rebates, as they almost did with Salvador Dalí, another dreamer more Catalan than a whip, who admired Gaudí and considered himself his brother even by his surname (gaudir and delir are synonymous words). But Dalí, avid for dollars, did not precisely aspire to sainthood, and faced with the political absurdity of his century, he ended up disguising himself as a Francoist, which was perhaps the most surreal (and the most practical) thing he could think of. This earned him the posthumous homage, of course, of Albert Boadella. There is no danger that he will do the same with Gaudí.

Opening the list of the most popular saints in June, Saturday is Saint Anthony of Padua, who will later be followed by Saint Louis, Saint John, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, who make up what we might call a goal-scoring front line. He is not the only Anthony in the calendar of saints. In fact, and judging by the number of people who congratulate me every January 17th, Saint Anthony Abbot is very popular, especially in Mallorca. The fact that the Anthony of January is the one with the little pig or the donkeys makes you notice that more than one person particularly enjoys remembering you.

The Teresianes de Ganduxer School, one of Antoni Gaudí's most unknown works, will host a museum in early 2028 that will combine heritage, art exhibitions, and activities to understand the creative evolution of the so-called " architect of God". The building, which until now was practically inaccessible to the public, will be named Museu Gaudí Teresianes. It has even received authorization from the Vatican, which is necessary because the property belongs to a religious congregation. But the families of the enrolled students feel "profoundly indignant" because they consider that they have been left "on the sidelines" of the project and that this change may have an impact on the educational function of the center, located in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district.

Wednesday evening saw the most apotheotic act of Pope Leo XIV's visit. The spectacle of the inauguration of the tower of Jesus was the celebration that connected most with civil society for its beauty and its link with Gaudí's architecture. Before this majestic moment, in the afternoon, public television channels delved into the events at the Sagrada Família. The broadcast on La 1 of TVE, with Pepa Bueno and Gemma Nierga, maintained a more formal tone, aware of when to speak and of the value of silence, without letting themselves be drawn into affectation. On La 2 Cat, in addition to the preliminaries with Oriol Nolis and Cristina Villanueva, they offered the ceremony with the utmost sobriety, with excellent Crisol Tuà and Anna Solé providing commentary. On TV3, the wait for the Pope's arrival with Toni Cruanyes and Núria Moliner was very well-crafted, especially the architectural content. But perhaps they wanted to do too many things at once. They exceeded themselves by dividing the screen into three and adding a graphic line that marred the image, crudely imitating Gaudí's theme. It looked like a PowerPoint template. Xavier Grasset took over with the start of the mass with an excess of rhetoric that often forgot the importance of the image and of silence. Beyond the mass, the event at the Sagrada Família connected with poetry in two moments: that of Valentina, the blind girl who explained the details of the cross of Jesus, and the moment the Pope lit a candle before Gaudí's tomb. Spirituality goes beyond sermons.The unforgettable and dazzling moment arrived with the dusk, after blessing the tower. A perfect calculation of the exact time. TV3 demonstrated its talent and quality in an excellent production. It was precise and majestic. It was as if Gaudí had foreseen the audiovisual and media potential of his great work. The fusion of light, music, and image was masterful. A show so well-crafted that it perfectly managed unforeseen events and last-minute changes. The perfect synergy with the production allowed a decisive element to finally appear that we had not yet seen since the Pope set foot in the State: mysticism. Beauty generated emotions that could be shared by citizens in a transversal way, without obliging religious convictions or the use of words. The pulses of light endowed the Sagrada Família with a soul, and the spectators, thanks to television as a privileged window, witnessed how spirituality crossed the basilica from top to bottom. Neither celebrities nor the rhetoric of experts, more old-fashioned than the Pope, are needed to move people. The use of drones with Gaudí's face contemplating his work was a symbolic way to bless the architectural epic in another way. "First love, then technique" is a message for everyone. If Gaudí were to lift his head, he would have seen the sublime hour of his work.

The first thing to say about the evening when the Pope blessed the tallest tower of the Sagrada Família is that we witnessed a moment for the history of the city and the country, because Gaudí's figure was recognized with a creative spectacularity (Igor Cortadellas) that was up to the monument and because the television broadcast (TV3, Paulí Subirà) was also up to the professional passion of the architect of God.

The blessing ceremony of the tallest tower of the Sagrada Família is one of those events we will never forget.

More than 140 years after the laying of the first stone, even today, what is considered Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece continues to take shape. In the final years of his prolific career, he poured all his efforts into building a temple that has today become Barcelona's main tourist attraction. Thousands of people visit it every year, and there seems to be a widespread consensus on its architectural and cultural value. However, the building has not been without controversy, starting with the fact that some question whether what we see today is what Gaudí would have done.

This country has extraordinary strength. I feel it as I solemnly watch Pope Leo XIV advance down the main nave of the Sagrada Familia, whose cross he will bless shortly before the cameras that will send the signal to all corners of the world.

If this is the Big Ben, we are in London. If this is the Eiffel Tower, we are in Paris. And, if this is the Sagrada Familia, we are in Barcelona. There are buildings with the capacity to represent an entire city just by appearing in a photograph, and the temple designed by Antoni Gaudí occupies a prominent position in this Instagram Olympus. L’ARA has spoken with photographers who have photographed the Sagrada Familia to explain what to do (and what not to do) when capturing this icon in a souvenir snapshot.

Despite the undisputed prominence of Pope Leo XIV, the figure of the day is Antoni Gaudí. His exuberant imagination, the firmness of his judgment, his extraordinary aesthetic sense, his mastery of calculation and the use of materials, have given him a place at the forefront of the history of contemporary architecture. Joan Maragall said that Gaudí was the poet of stone.

The trajectory of Ceràmica Cumella is profoundly marked by the legacy of Antoni Gaudí: Toni Cumella (Granollers, 1951) has worked on the restorations of Parc Güell, the Teresianes school, and Casa Batlló. And for almost twenty years he has been working for the Sagrada Família: the tower of Jesus, which Pope Leo XIV inaugurates this Wednesday, is the latest major milestone, shared with his son Guillem, representing the fifth generation of ceramists. Together, father and son have taken on commissions that are only suitable for very expert experts.

The draftsman Ricard Opisso (1880-1966) had bitter memories of the Nativity façade of the Sagrada Família: for some years he dedicated himself to killing and dissecting sparrows and canaries to use them as models for the sculpted birds found all over the work. "By Gaudí's inexorable decree, I was in charge of the killing," said Opisso, in a text recovered by architect and Gaudí expert Chiara Curti in the collective biography My Gaudí (Triangle Books). "After taking their lives - he explained - I then had to remove their abdominal viscera, to then arrange them in suitable positions to serve as models for the official sculptors [...] Even today, when I pass by and gaze ecstatically at all that overhang and the ornithological bustle, after more than half a century, I seem to sense in the atmosphere a strange putrid and nauseating stench of decomposing entrails". But the story had a happy ending, because the feat Opisso recounted was saving a canary that an imposing Gaudí had brought him. "Gaudí, with his half-monastic, half-demonic face, looking at me intently, with those blue eyes that pierced the soul and caused shivers, handed me the small cage, at the same time telling me in a rough and domineering voice, in which there was no inflection of tenderness: 'Richard, take this; kill this bird, place it with its wings outstretched in a flying attitude'," recalled the draftsman.

On April 14, 2025, just one week before his death, Pope Francis proclaimed Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) a "venerable servant of God," a title with which the Catholic Church recognizes the heroic virtues of men and women, and which constitutes the first step towards sainthood within the long process of beatification and canonization. A historic decision that came after an initiative launched in the 90s by José Manuel Almuzara dedicated to disseminating the figure of the one known as the "architect of God.

When Antoni Gaudí obtained his architect's degree, the director of the School of Architecture, Elies Rogent, dedicated a phrase to him that is one of the best known: "We have given the title to a genius or a madman, time will tell," said Rogent. Although Gaudí's academic record was not among the most brilliant, it already showed a very unique talent, and later he revealed himself to be a true innovator. In the final stages of the Sagrada Família works, the debate about the advisability of its continuation still persists. But beyond tastes and theories on how to intervene in heritage buildings, it is undeniable that the continuators of the temple leave a great legacy of innovation in the field of incorporating new technologies into construction.

Of the Sagrada Família, which these days is the protagonist because the Pope will commemorate the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death on the 10th, many books have been written. Almost everything is known or studied, but there are some curiosities that perhaps not everyone knows about the great temple that has now become the most emblematic image of Barcelona. We have selected 33, a symbolic number that appears in the magic square of the Passion facade, in which, by cheating a little, all the numbers in the grid, in any row, column, and diagonal, add up to 33, which is Christ's supposed age when he died.

At the Sagrada Família, the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death will be commemorated by the inauguration and blessing of the Jesus tower by Pope Leo XIV. As soon as the technicians removed the scaffolding, the four-armed cross that crowns it, at 172.5 meters high, became a global icon. Currently, the construction of the entire temple is 80% complete, and these will be the next architectural milestones. The forecast is that the works will be finished around the year 2035.

144 years ago the Sagrada Familia began and for more than 100 years it has been the undisputed symbol of Barcelona. If the Eiffel Tower defines Paris and the Empire State defines New York, there is no doubt that what defines Barcelona, and almost Catalonia, is this basilica which has recently become the tallest religious building in Europe. Next Tuesday, the 10th, it will be a century since Antoni Gaudí, the architect who dreamed it up and designed it, died. In fact, he dedicated 43 years of his life to it and is buried there. Pope Leo XIV will commemorate his centenary with a mass, in which he will also bless the Tower of Jesus, the central and tallest of the complex.

The question of authorship is a topic that seems very specialized, but it has a lot to do with the conceptions of contemporary society. Who was, really, the author of a work of art or architecture? And what does the right of authorship imply? In Barcelona, we have two popular and significant examples of this controversy: the Sagrada Família and the German Pavilion of Barcelona in Montjuïc.Regarding the authorship of the Sagrada Família, we must start from the recent contribution made by the College of Architects for Gaudí Year: the Gaudí Constellation; an interactive digital tool that vindicates the importance of the great quality of the architects, artists, artisans, and industrialists who collaborated on Gaudí's works, a collaborative architecture that completely refutes the idea that he was a solitary genius. It was quite the opposite, a skilled leader of competent and creative teams. The result of teamwork in Gaudí's work is clearly evident in the Palau Güell and La Pedrera or Casa Milà-Segimon: the qualities and innovations were achieved with the best architects (such as Josep Maria Jujol and Joan Rubí i Bellver); the ceramics by Pujol i Bausis, manufactured in La Rajoleta; the furniture by F. Vidal y Compañía; the wrought iron by Germans Badia i Miarnau, and by Mañach; the iron structures by Tallers Torras, Ferreteria i Construccions; the contributions of painters such as Iu Pasqual, Aleix Clapés, Javier Nogués and Teresa Lostau; and the intervention of qualified glassmakers, cabinetmakers, and flooring manufacturers. This is how quality, texture, light, reflections, decoration, and furnishings were achieved; which does not detract from Gaudí's merit, but rather places him in a creative context, qualified by great architects, artisans, artists, and industrialists. A phenomenon that not only characterizes Modernism, but also the will of Catalan society. Unlike what William Morris advocated and the Arts and Crafts movement put into practice, rejecting mass production, in Catalonia the values of craftsmanship were enhanced with the possibilities of industrial production.