If there are more tourists in Barcelona, ??also in the Sagrada Família. The temple has fully recovered the figures of 2019 and expects to close the year with 4.5 million tickets sold, a figure with which it will exceed 100 million euros in revenue. The economic slack has allowed the investment in works to double, which goes from 24 million in 2022 to 50 this year. The match ensures the scheduled schedule. Despite the fact that there is no end date for the works in sight – the pandemic made the 2026 goal impossible – the two towers of the evangelists that are missing are scheduled to be inaugurated on November 12: the one of Joan and Mateu, 135 meters of height. This completes the group of four central towers that surround the tower of Jesus, the tallest, which is now 131 meters high and is expected to be crowned in 2026, at 172 meters.
If a year ago the construction of the towers of the evangelist Mark, with a lion, and of the evangelist Luke, with an ox, was finished, this year it is the turn of John and Matthew. The eagle and the face of an angel that symbolize them – by the sculptor Xavier Medina-Campeny – will be placed in the coming days on top of the corresponding pinnacle, together with the wings of more than nine meters high built of concrete . At the beginning of November, the scaffolding and security elements of these two towers will be removed to be able to inaugurate and illuminate them on November 12.
In this final stage of the construction of the Sagrada Familia there are many open fronts. As for the towers, the most visible and eye-catching works, the restoration and replacement work of two of the pinnacles of the Nativity facade has also been completed and work has begun to update the remaining two.
The next construction milestone will be the completion of the tower of Jesus, the central one, which also involves finishing the room of the cruise, at a height of 66 meters, and from where it will be possible to access by elevator to the spectacular cross that will crown the structure. This room – now with provisional and restricted access – will have a privileged view over the structure of the nave and has stone bleachers to be able to host small events.
“The cross that crowns the tower of Jesus is a very complex element and the goal is to have a prototype next year on a natural scale and with the original materials to be able to do tests”, explains the architect director of the work, Jordi Faulí. If the inauguration of the star of Mary became a whole event, this cross is destined to be a central element of the whole. It will consist of four arms and will be 17 meters high and 13.5 meters wide.
So, when the works on the two towers of the Evangelists are finished in November, the focus of the works will shift to that of Jesus. There, the scaffolding will be assembled again to continue raising the pinnacle up to 172 meters. During the last year this tower has grown six meters, up to the current 131: “We have been working and building from the inside of the structure, but it is getting narrower and from now on we will continue working from the exterior”, Faulí advanced.
Despite the good economic results, with revenues of more than 100 million euros, a historic figure, the construction board does not venture for now to give a date for the completion of the works on the monument as a whole. If before the pandemic the goal was to finish in 2026, the calendar now remains open. “Until 2024 we will not be in a position to specify the end”, Faulí insisted yesterday. What has become clear is that they will not give up the grand staircase that Gaudí devised on the facade of the Glòria, on Carrer Mallorca, with a construction that has a direct impact on the buildings erected in front of the temple.
The director of the Junta Constructora, Xavier Martínez, explained yesterday that “in relation to the urban planning issue and at the City Council, we are the same as in February last year; we are at their disposal, when they summon us, we will gladly go to talk to them”. So far there has been no meeting or meeting with the new mayor, Jaume Collboni. Municipal sources reported yesterday that the intention is to dialogue with the representatives of the Board of Trustees of the Sagrada Família, the neighbors and other entities, “to work on the best proposal for the completion of the works and the needs of the city”. The same sources point out that they will work to weave a great agreement “that incorporates all views”. Taking into account that it is a “complex situation and in which there are legitimate and obviously distant interests, the solution must involve the best fit of the monument with the neighborhood, with the current urban planning and with an environment with a lot of tourist pressure ”, maintain from the City Council.
In addition to the 4.5 million tickets sold to access the Sagrada Família, the monument attracts many more tourists who pass through the neighborhood without entering the basilica, which has become a must-see for tourists visiting Barcelona. “We don’t have ticket offices specifically to sell tickets for a specific time and with orderly access”, pointed out Xavier Martínez yesterday. In 2018, when the urban situation of the temple works was regularized, with the granting of the license and a new urban planning, the Consistory and the construction board reached an agreement through which the Sagrada Família contributes to financing the expenses derived from their activity, the civic agents and two items for works. The agreement involved an investment of 36 million euros that will have to be paid over ten years, until 2028.
