The Construction Board of the Sagrada Família will not give up the great staircase that Gaudí designed on the façade of the Glòria, on Mallorca Street. Its construction involves the demolition of the houses located in that section. “We have to sit down and talk to the City Council; we want to negotiate and we will surely reach an agreement,” says Esteve Camps, delegate president of the Fundació Sagrada Família. The desired date for the end of the works depends on this negotiation: “In ten years the temple could be finished, but that depends on the administration,” Camps reiterates.
The mayor of Barcelona, ??Jaume Collboni, and the councilor of l’Eixample, Jordi Valls visited the Sagrada Família a couple of weeks ago, a gesture that Camps has valued positively, although he recognizes that there has been no progress in the negotiation of licenses nor He has talked about expropriations. On this point and the participation of the Sagrada Família Foundation in the expropriations, Camps insists that “we have to sit down and talk.”
During the visit to the temple, the first that a mayor has made in years, “we were able to explain the work we are doing and the pace of the works; now we are waiting to meet to agree on progress,” Camps insisted this morning, in the press conference in which he presented the balance of the Sagrada Família’s activity during 2023.
During last year, the temple registered 4.7 million visits, which represents an increase of 24.47% compared to 2022 and figures very similar to those of 2019, the year in which all records were broken. By origin, American tourists were the most numerous (19%), followed by Spanish (14.6%), French (7.5%), Italian (7.2%), British (5.9%), Koreans (5.6%), Germans (4.4%) and Japanese (2.28%).
This very high tourist activity has translated into income of around 100 million euros, half of which will be allocated to works. “The rest guarantees the operation of the temple, allows us to increase contributions to the social fund, to which 7.5 million will be allocated this year, and will also serve to provide resources,” explained Camps.
The works of the Sagrada Família are now focused on the completion of the tower of Jesus, the tallest, which is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2025 and to be inaugurated, with lighting included in 2026, coinciding with the centenary of the death of the architect. Meanwhile, work on the Capella de la Assumpta and the restoration of the pinnacles on the Naixement façade are progressing.
However, the focus of activity is already shifting to the Glòria façade, where the crane is now being assembled to begin work after the summer. The Construction Board has all the necessary licenses to build the four towers and the first row of the portico.
