The Sagrada Família, at City Hall: "We will not give up the staircase"

BarcelonaThe The Sagrada Família viewing cross, which will make the basilica the tallest religious building in EuropeIt will be discovered on June 2026, coinciding with the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death, but visitors will not be able to access the interior "safely" until the end of 2027. This has also been explained by Esteve Camps, delegate president of the Construction Board, at the press conference of the 2024 project, and argue that security measures must be "totally guaranteed" and open space to the public.

The tower of Jesus, where the cross will be installed and which will make the monument reach 172.5 meters high, is scheduled to be completed this year. The idea is that the four-armed figure that will crown it, 17 metres high, 13.5 metres wide and weighing 100 tonnes, will remain covered until June next year. From the centre of this cross, covered in white ceramic and with glass windows, several spotlights will emerge to lightly illuminate the sky of Barcelona. Once raised, the forecast is that the capacity will only be eleven people at a time.

The viewing point of the tower of Jesus will be a new attraction of the Sagrada Família, which in 2024 achieved a new record of 4.8 million visitors (4,833,658 people in total), which represents an increase of 2.7% compared to the previous year. "We are at our limit," admitted Xavier Martínez, general director of the Construction Board, and ruled out an increase in capacity so as not to compromise the quality of the visit.

Although contributions from visitors continue to be the main source of income for the basilica (96.9% of the total), Martínez believes that the current amount of money received – 133.9 million this year, 5.5% more than the previous year – is "more than enough" to cover the final works on the temple.

As in previous years, American visitors have been the largest group in the last year (18.6%), ahead of Catalans and Spaniards (12.7%), French (6.9%) and Italians (6.5%). But the increase in visitors, according to Martínez, would be explained above all by the rise in the Asian public. In fact, the visitor from South Korea (6.18%) rises this year to the fifth largest, while that from China is the one that grows the most, up to 4.5% of the total.

"We will never give up the steps"

Aside from the balance, among the key works of this 2025 Camps are those of the Glòria façade, the one facing Mallorca street. At this time, the foundations of the four towers and those of the baptistery chapel have already been built, and on January 23, the Construction Board submitted to the City Council the request to put up the scaffolding and start working on the "verticality" of the façade. The forecast was to finish it next year, but the covid truncated the plans for the works and now the new date on the table is in ten years, with the exception of the 100 figures that will decorate it.

Another thing is what happens with the grand staircase leading to the temple, planned from this same façade and which would involve debris in two blocks, between Mallorca and Aragón streets. The president delegate of the Junta has said that there is no news, but has been very clear in the face of the complicated three-way negotiations with the council and the affected residents: "The Sagrada Família will never give up the staircase. It is the work of Antoni Gaudí and we are his heirs and we must ensure the fulfillment of the entire project,"

Camps has stated that they are open to "dialogue" but that they will maintain this position even if this prolongs the conversations, started two terms ago during Xavier Trias's time at the City Hall. According to him, the current municipal government of the PSC "knows in depth everything that must be done" and now in the temple they are waiting for it to make a move. "We cannot talk about anything until we know what they authorize us to do: if the width is one or another, this will affect more or less residents," he said.

Camps has, however, valued the attitude of Mayor Jaume Collboni regarding the temple. "It is the first time that a mayor has come to visit the works," he said. The council reopened the debate on the steps last May, with a meeting of the first deputy mayor and councillor for Urban Planning, Laia Bonet, and the chief architect, Maria Buhigas, with representatives of the Sagrada Família residents' association and the platform of those affected by the construction of the temple, to whom it is closed.

Looking ahead to 2025, Camps has announced that in October the commemorative events will begin for the centenary of the completion of the Sant Bernabé tower, the oldest in the temple and which Gaudí completed during his lifetime in 1925. The commemoration of a season, which took place in June 1926. It will be then when, taking advantage of the date, the viewing cross of the Jesus tower will be unveiled and the temple of the Sagrada Família will have reached its roof.