The hour of truth for the Sagrada Familia staircase

BarcelonaThe longest urban dispute in Barcelona is reaching its moment of truth. With the tower of Jesus crowned, the Sagrada Familia now definitively looks towards the Glory facade. And with it, one of the debates that has generated the most passion among architects, historians, and neighbors is resurrected: the staircase. This week, the delegate president of the Temple Construction Board, Esteve Camps, stated that an agreement with the Barcelona City Council to unblock the project is "close." And among the affected residents, who have been waiting half a century for a verdict, the feeling prevails that, this time, the moment has indeed arrived."This has to be settled and it's on its way to being settled," admits the president of the Sagrada Familia Neighbors Association, Gabriel Mercadal. If confirmed, it would be a historic milestone. After years of the staircase appearing and disappearing from plans and documents, finally, in 1976, the Metropolitan General Plan (PGM) formally recorded the impact on the two blocks in front of the temple – those between Mallorca, Aragó, Sardenya, and Marina streets – to create a 60-meter-wide avenue. A promenade that would lead practically from Diagonal Avenue to the entrance of the Glory facade, which would be accessed via a staircase that would go over Mallorca street.

This planning would involve the demolition of the houses on these two blocks. Some dating back even before Gaudí first drew the staircase. Others, built in extremis before the PGM was approved. This is the case of the Núñez y Navarro apartment block which, thanks to a report from the commission of Historical Artistic Heritage of the Ministry of Education and Science, was allowed to be built just one year before the planning designated that land as a green zone in anticipation of the staircase. A building just twenty meters from the Glòria facade and which, from that controversial process onwards, became a symbol of the saga surrounding the staircase.

Since then, and especially as the works on the temple progressed and made the debate inevitable, the different municipal governments have tried to close a proposal that would ground that project by reducing its impact. The government of Xavier Trias did so, hand in hand with the architect Enric Massip, limiting the width of the promenade to 40 meters. Also the executive of the commons, with a project by the chief architect Xavier Matilla that reduced the impact on the neighbors. Two years ago, it was the government of Jaume Collboni who took on the challenge of closing this file with the promise of solving the puzzle within this very mandate.

Although all parties are optimistic about reaching an agreement, the content of the conversations, in which the City Council has the final say and which must mainly resolve three issues, is currently unknown: how many residents of these two blocks in the Eixample will ultimately be affected; where they will be rehoused or how they will be compensated, and who will pay for and how an operation that, according to some calculations, could amount to around 150 or 200 million euros. This is what the fourth deputy mayor, Jordi Valls, has been trying to finalize for some time in the conversations he is holding, on the one hand, with the residents and, on the other, with the Sagrada Família.

Meanwhile, the neighbors await expectantly the verdict that will end half a century of uncertainty. "You live with a lot of anguish because whoever has to decide doesn't decide," laments Salvador Barroso, president of the platform for those affected by the temple. He admits, however, that he sees the outcome approaching. "Now we are at the end of the road. How will it end? I don't know," he explains. Some live very close to the temple and are convinced that theirs will be one of the affected apartments, but they don't know how or when. Others, like the neighbors on València street, are not even sure if they will eventually have to leave one day.

This is the case of Alícia and Ignasi Busquets, two siblings who each have an apartment on the mountain side of València street and who, they explain, have been living for years with the expectation of what will happen in their homes. Like them, many neighbors hesitate when it comes to renovating, for example, a bathroom or a kitchen because they don't know if it will be worth it. The Busquets siblings also have the feeling that the resolution of the process is imminent. "With the inauguration of the cross, you can see that the moment is coming," they explain from the rooftop of their building, from where the facade of La Glòria is perfectly observed and, in front of it, the Núñez y Navarro building and the two blocks of affected houses.

"What worries us most is that a solution is reached that is not definitive and that does not serve everyone," they say. They also admit that they have neighbors who, tired of living with tourism that has saturated public space and transformed the neighborhood's commerce, prefer to receive compensation and look for a place to live outside the neighborhood rather than be rehoused a few streets from the temple.

Rehousing the neighbors

This will be another of the keys to the process that will have to be opened once the agreement to delimit the finally affected area is closed and the protocol for the residents of the blocks to be demolished is established: knowing exactly how many need to be rehoused. Of these, it is already clear that some will end up on the site of a new building that would be erected on the adjacent block, on the Aigües site – between Marina, Lepant, Mallorca and València –, and which the Sagrada Família acquired in 2019 in anticipation. However, it will also be necessary to find other sites in the area to offer housing solutions to all affected residents who need them.

"We will consider it not resolved if there are problems ensuring housing for everyone," warns Mercadal, who maintains that "it is about achieving a balanced and acceptable solution." The agreement will have to be very precise because it will have to provide a response to everyone. To the owners of apartments who live there and those who don't, to tenants with a valid contract at the time of the operation, and also to traders like Pep Bransuela, who has just renovated the pharmacy on València street where he has worked for 19 years and which he now manages. He explains that, despite being a premises affected by the 1976 plan, he decided to go ahead with the renovation because the pharmacy required it. "You have the insecurity of not knowing what to do," he admits.

The Pope's visit

Therefore, among the neighbors there is concern about the result of the agreement, but also a desire to close a chapter that has kept them on edge for half a century. Among those consulted, there is a feeling that the visit of Pope Leo XIV on June 10 to inaugurate the Tower of Jesus must finally precipitate events. They are divided, however, between those who believe that the agreement will be closed before to prevent any neighborhood protest from clouding the pontiff's visit, and those who think the opposite: that to avoid stirring up debate, it will not be until just after Leo XIV has left that this issue will be definitively tackled.

An agreement that, if closed and beyond possible legal disputes, would still require another significant step. The municipal government would have to obtain the support of the majority of the council to move forward with the reform of the PGM of 1976. And all this, less than a year before the municipal elections of 2027. Nevertheless, the countdown for the Sagrada Familia's staircase has begun.