On 10 June 2026 it was exactly one hundred years since Gaudí died. That day the Tower of Jesus Christ was inaugurated and the Sagrada Família reached 172.5 metres, making it the tallest church in the world. The ceremony was led by Pope Leo XIV.
What almost nobody knows is why it stopped precisely there instead of going higher. It was not money and it was not engineering: it was a decision Gaudí took more than a century ago, and it has to do with a hill on the other side of the city.
The 172.5 metres Gaudí refused to exceed
Gaudí deliberately set the temple’s height below that of Montjuïc.
His reasoning was that no human work should rise above the work of nature, so he calculated the highest point of his church by looking at the hill that closes Barcelona to the southwest. Every team that has continued the work across the hundred years since has respected that ceiling, even though it could technically have gone higher.
What is the tallest church in the world? The Sagrada Família in Barcelona, since 10 June 2026. The Tower of Jesus Christ took it to 172.5 metres, above every other church on the planet. The date coincided with the centenary of Gaudí’s death.
The Tower of Jesus Christ does not stand alone. It is flanked by four towers of 123 metres dedicated to the evangelists — Mark, Luke, Matthew and John — completing the scheme Gaudí left drawn. Seen from a distance, that grouping is what has changed the city’s silhouette, and it now registers from places where it barely did before, as I describe in the viewpoints I use at sunset.
It went up for 137 years without a building permit
This is not an urban legend or an exaggeration. It is literal.
Work began in 1882 and the temple had no municipal building permit until 7 June 2019. That is 137 years in between. The original application was filed in 1885, with a plan signed by Gaudí, to the council of Sant Martí de Provençals, a town later absorbed into Barcelona: nobody ever answered that request and the permit sat in administrative limbo for more than a century.
When it was finally regularised the bill was substantial. The licence cost 4.6 million euros, and on top of that the foundation committed to paying 36 million over ten years to offset what the temple costs the city in urban works, mobility and upkeep of its surroundings. It is probably the most expensive unpermitted-works settlement in Spanish history, and it came out of a 2018 agreement between the City Council and the temple’s construction board.
That jump from 1926 to 2026 is what explains the building: a hundred years spent constructing a dead man’s drawing.
What is left, and the staircase that would rehouse a thousand homes
With the height reached, the hardest part remains, and it is not an architectural problem.
Still missing is the Glory façade, the main one, facing Carrer Mallorca, and the monumental staircase Gaudí designed in front of it in 1915. The architect’s drawing defines that staircase in full detail, and the construction board has not given up on building it. The problem is where it would go: it would occupy ground currently holding residential blocks, and building it would mean rehousing close to a thousand homes and businesses.
That is the open argument in the city, and it has no easy answer. Following Gaudí’s plan to the letter means expropriating and demolishing an inhabited block; abandoning the staircase means leaving the temple without the entrance its author conceived as the main one. The official completion projection is 2034, though that date has already moved more than once.
What it costs to go in, and which ticket to take
There is one detail here that ruins trips: there is no physical ticket office. Everything is sold online.
The basic ticket with audio guide costs 26 euros. The one including a climb up one of the towers — Nativity or Passion, one only — is 36 euros. The guided group visit is 30 euros. All carry a timed slot. And during 2026, for the centenary, Barcelona residents pay half, which is why you will see locals queuing this year.
One warning about the towers that rarely gets mentioned: you go up by lift but come down on foot, via a narrow spiral staircase. If you have vertigo or bad knees, the 26-euro ticket is the better decision. How this visit fits into a short trip is broken down in what to see in Barcelona in 3 days.
| Ticket | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic with audio guide | €26 | Temple and downloadable audio guide |
| With tower access | €36 | Temple and a climb up one tower |
| Guided visit | €30 | Temple and a group guide |
| Plaça de Gaudí | Free | The view with the pond |
| Plaça de la Sagrada Família | Free | The view from the Passion side |
The last two rows are the ones I use most, and they explain the next section.
Where to see it for free, and at what hour
The temple is flanked by two public squares, and from them you see the whole thing without paying anything.
Plaça de Gaudí is the one on the Nativity façade side, the part Gaudí did build and the part Unesco has listed. It has a pond in which the temple reflects in full, and that is where the photograph you have seen a thousand times comes from. It fills up, so timing matters: early morning is quiet and the light hits that façade head on.
Plaça de la Sagrada Família, on the other side, faces the Passion façade, far more severe and angular. It holds fewer people and gives you more room to step back, which with the Tower of Jesus Christ finished is exactly what you need to fit the whole thing in frame.
And for the distant view, the one that shows the new silhouette against the city, you have to go up. The places I use are in the sunset viewpoints, and all of them are free.
What I do
- Buy online, because there is no ticket office
- First slot of the morning, with the shortest queue
- The Plaça de Gaudí pond early
- The €26 ticket if anyone in the group has vertigo
- Walking right round it before going in
What goes wrong
- Turning up to buy a ticket on site
- Arriving late for your slot and losing it
- Paying €36 without knowing you walk down
- Only seeing the Nativity side
- Going at midday in summer, no shade and packed
Walking right round it first is not a whim: the two finished façades were made by different hands a century apart, and side by side they explain fifty years of argument over whether the work should have continued at all.
What I do not gamble on at the Sagrada Família
The ticket office. It does not exist. Anyone who turns up to buy loses the morning.
The tower without warning. You come down a spiral staircase. Know that before paying the 36 euros.
Seeing it from outside and calling it done. The interior looks nothing like the façade: the forest of columns and the light through the windows are a different thing entirely.
Assuming it is finished. It still needs the Glory façade and a staircase that, as Gaudí drew it, would take out an entire inhabited block.
How to see it without getting it wrong
Book days ahead. It is timed entry and it sells out, especially in the centenary year.
Choose the right ticket. 26 euros with older travellers or anyone with vertigo, 36 if you want the view from above and your knees agree.
Give the two squares their time. They are free, at street level, and they show you the whole composition, which you cannot see from inside.
Look at it from far away too. The silhouette changed this June, and that only reads from height, as I describe in the facts that explain the city.
Barcelona has taken a hundred and forty-four years to raise the tallest church in the world, and it still has no front door.
Climbing one of the towers and unsure which? Message me on Instagram @barcelonainspira and I will tell you which one I would take for what you want to see.
Keep discovering Barcelona with me
More things I write about here: what to see in Barcelona in 3 days, the sunset viewpoints, the facts that explain the city and the best time to visit.
What is the tallest church in the world
The Sagrada Família in Barcelona, since 10 June 2026. That day the Tower of Jesus Christ was inaugurated, taking the temple to 172.5 metres and putting it above every other church on the planet. The date marked the centenary of Antoni Gaudí’s death and the ceremony was led by Pope Leo XIV.
Why is the Sagrada Família not taller
Because Gaudí decided no human work should rise above nature, and set the temple’s height just below the Montjuïc hill. The 172.5 metres are not a technical or budgetary ceiling, they are a decision the architect took more than a century ago and that every team continuing the work has respected since.
When will the Sagrada Família be finished
The current projection is 2034, though the date has slipped several times. With the Tower of Jesus Christ complete the temple has reached its final height, and what remains is the Glory façade and the monumental staircase. That staircase is the delicate part, because the plan Gaudí left in 1915 would require rehousing close to a thousand homes and businesses.
How much does it cost to enter the Sagrada Família
The basic ticket with audio guide costs 26 euros, the one including a climb up one of the towers is 36, and the guided group visit is 30. All carry a timed slot and are sold online only, because the temple has no physical ticket office. During 2026, for the Gaudí centenary, Barcelona residents pay half.
Where can you see the Sagrada Família for free
From the two public squares around it. Plaça de Gaudí, on the Nativity façade side, has a pond where the whole temple reflects and is where the classic photograph comes from. Plaça de la Sagrada Família, on the Passion side, is more open and less crowded. Both are public and cost nothing.
