Later this month, Pope Leo XIV will visit Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia to inaugurate and bless the Tower of Jesus Christ, the final tower of the long-gestating church. The tower was completed in February, wrapping up 144 years of construction on the notoriously complex and intricate design.
The famed church was designed by architect Antoni Gaudi, a pioneer of Art Nouveau and modernisme, or Catalan Modernism. Construction on La Basílica de la Sagrada Familia, considered his masterpiece, started in 1882. When Gaudi died in 1926, at the age of 73, only one tower was completed. Work has continued on the monument in century since, with it becoming one of the most visited tourist attractions in Europe. A record 4.87 million people visited the church in 2025, with ticket sales generating over $150 million in revenue.
The inauguration ceremony is scheduled for June 10, exactly one hundred years from Gaudi’s death. The Pope will bless the church in mass, set to be attended by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez.
In an interview with the Art Newspaper, Mateu Hernández, the chief executive officer of Visit Barcelona, described the wonder of seeing the finished curch after a lifetime in the city. ““It was always there, germinating, slowly growing, being part of our lives since the beginning, but then it’s like seeing it for the first time,” he said. “You’re going down the Diagonal and whoa! There it is. You go up on your building’s rooftop and whoa! There it is again.”
The ceremony will also coincide with Barcelona’s designation by UNESCO as a World Capital of Architecture; the city will host the UIA World Congress of Architects from June 28 to July 2.
Born in 1852 in the Catalonian city of Reus, Gaudi credited his father’s business as a boiler-maker for helping him learn how to see a space before he started working. Gaudi graduated from Barcelona’s School of Architecture in 1878 and saw a meteoric rise, as he designed a display case shown at the World’s Fair in Paris, then public lampposts for the city of Barcelona, folowed by several landmark residental commissions.
While the Sagrada Familia is his most famous work, Gaudi is well known for Park Güell, completed between 1900 and 1913, which features many of his iconic motifs, Casa Batlló, and the apartment building Casa Milà, which is mimics a wave. In 1910 his work was celebrated with an exhibition at the Société des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He died in 1926 after being hit by a tram, and has since been buried in the crypt of his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia.
