BARCELONA: The spectacular inauguration of the last major tower of the Sagrada Familia turned Barcelona into the stage for a historic celebration on Wednesday. Thousands of people packed the streets around Antoni Gaudí’s basilica to attend a ceremony marked by emotion and music, a drone show and an impressive display of lights and fireworks that lit up the Spanish city’s most iconic monument.
Pope Leo XIV offered his formal blessing Wednesday to the highest spire of what is now the world’s tallest church, holding Mass at the iconic Sagrada Família in Barcelona.
The event, the highlight of a weeklong trip to Spain for Leo, comes 144 years after construction on the unfinished modernist basilica began and 100 years since the death of its famous architect, Antoni Gaudí.
Standing 566 feet high and crowned with a five-story ceramic cross, the central Tower of Jesus Christ is the highest of 18 adorning the Sagrada Família, a bucket-list item for most travelers to the city in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region.
Leo’s visit commemorates the legacy of Gaudí, whose radical, modernist designs were mocked in his lifetime but have subsequently been celebrated. Gaudí took over the construction of Sagrada Família in 1883, a year after the first cornerstone was laid during the pontificate of Leo’s namesake, Pope Leo XIII.
“We are all the living stones of this edifice,” Leo said from the altar of the basilica. The ceremony was presided over by Pope Leo XIV, who celebrated a special Mass to mark the centenary of Gaudí’s death; the architect who devoted more than four decades of his life to designing and building the basilica. He also blessed the new Tower of Jesus Christ, the tallest of the basilica’s spires, which has made the Sagrada Familia the tallest church in the world.
Some 120,000 people gathered in the streets near the basilica, where a large security operation was in place because of the presence of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, as well as Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
After the Mass, held inside the basilica, Leo XIV came outside to bless the large illuminated ceramic cross that crowns the new tower. As a children’s choir performed several musical pieces, a spectacular light show transformed the basilica’s famous stained-glass windows into a mosaic of colours visible from outside. The ceremony ended with fireworks launched from the façade of the basilica.
In his homily, the pontiff described the Sagrada Familia as a masterpiece of ‘stone, colour and light’ and said that it stands as ‘a sign of unity and harmony for the whole of Spain’.
The new Tower of Jesus Christ rises to 172.5 metres in height and has become the most striking feature of Barcelona’s skyline. With its completion, the Sagrada Familia officially becomes the world’s tallest church. The basilica now has 18 towers: 12 dedicated to the apostles, four to the evangelists, one to the Virgin Mary and the great central tower dedicated to Jesus Christ.
Although completing this tower marks one of the most important milestones in the building’s history, the works are not yet finished. Full completion of the basilica is expected in the next decade.
The Sagrada Familia is regarded as one of the most extraordinary works of architecture in the world. Inside, huge columns inspired by tree trunks rise up towards the vaults, creating the sensation of standing in a forest.
Light is another major protagonist of the building. The blue and green tones of the east-facing stained-glass windows illuminate the Nativity façade, while reddish and orange hues bathe the Passion façade at sunset. Behind the altar, golden tones predominate, evoking glory and divinity.
