The more than 4.8 million visitors to the Sagrada Família in 2024, the highest figure ever reached, surely wonder when its construction will be finished. There lies the difference between tourists and locals, with the latter having given up hope of a concrete completion and some preferring things to stay as they are. At last year's balance press conference, it's not surprising that the first journalist to ask about the completion date was from an international media outlet.
Once the question is asked, the dance of figures begins, with the basilica's construction board setting the temporal horizon for ten years from now, as it did a year ago and also two years ago. Therefore, now they speak of 2035, but it is a dubious date and, moreover, it has nuances. Firstly, because it does not include the controversial staircase that Antoni Gaudí designed for the main facade, the one facing Mallorca street, conceived many years before a construction company called Núñez y Navarro existed. And, as specified by the delegated president of the construction board, Esteve Camps, it also does not contemplate the decoration of this last pending facade, in which more than 100 figures will have to be defined ---it will tell the history of humanity from Adam and Eve to the final judgment--- and the responsible artists will have to be found, something that is also never free of controversy in the city, and see how long it takes them to do it. The artists' competition is expected to be announced at the end of this 2025.
However, the foundations of this facade, that of the Glòria, are already laid, both for the baptistery and for the four towers, so the scaffolding will not take long to appear, waiting for the City Council to approve the corresponding procedure. The forecast is to place them this February, at the latest, in March. To build the verticality, understood as the four towers of the facade, the ten years that the construction board keeps mentioning are calculated, but it still remains to be seen what will be done with the staircase, designed to overcome the existing four-meter difference in level between Provença and Mallorca. The structure will emerge from inside the temple, passing over traffic. Its execution directly clashes with the apartment blocks that were built in Mallorca, knowing the plans that were underway for the temple.
Negotiations with the City Council to obtain authorization for the staircase have begun and the Sagrada Família construction board is confident of reaching an agreement to carry out the entirety of Gaudí's project. "The Sagrada Família will never give up the staircase. It is the work of Antoni Gaudí and we are his heirs; we must ensure the fulfillment of the project. The negotiation may be long, but we are always open to dialogue," Camps stated.
The construction board usually recalls that the plan the architect presented to the City Council in 1915 clearly showed the staircase and was signed by him. The conflict lies in the fact that, sixty years later, the council granted a building permit to the construction company Núñez y Navarro to build an apartment block on Mallorca Street, opposite the Glòria facade, which is why the current residents argue that the expropriation is illegal. With conversations with residents since Xavier Trias's mayorship, the possibility of reducing the width of the staircase to have a lesser impact is on the table, something the board is open to considering.
Pending this last chapter, which is expected to be long, the temple will achieve new construction milestones this 2025. In addition to starting work on the Glòria facade, the construction of the Jesus Tower will be completed, with its inauguration scheduled for June, when the centenary of Gaudí's death will be celebrated. However, only its exterior appearance will be ready, measuring over 170 meters and becoming the tallest building in the city, with the opening of its viewpoint not expected until 2027. Throughout 2025, the Assumption chapel, located on Provença Street, will also be completed.
Visitors exceed 2019 numbers
It has been difficult but, finally, the Sagrada Família has managed to leave the pandemic behind. Now that tourism has returned strongly to the city, especially with the return of Asian visitors, its main monument has surpassed the records of a distant 2019. More than 4.8 million visitors entered its interior in 2024, about 100,000 more tickets compared to 2019, when almost 4.7 million were sold. It thus sets its attendance record, approaching its maximum capacity, about 5 million annually, with a growth capacity adjusted to low season months such as January and February, although, walking around on any winter day, it doesn't seem like there's much room either.
"It has been an exceptional year," defended the basilica's general director, Xavier Martínez. Among the Asian public, those from South Korea have stood out, placing themselves in the fifth position of the main markets, as well as the registered growth of those who have come from China, with an increase of more than 4% and placing themselves at the level of the United Kingdom and Germany. Regarding the Korean prominence, Martínez explained that, during the pandemic, local authorities asked their citizens what they wanted to do when the emergency passed, and the preferred option was to travel, with Barcelona as the first destination. The United States continues to be the main source country, representing almost 19% of visitors.
These good results have allowed the Sagrada Família's turnover to increase to almost 140 million euros, with 97% of the income contributed by ticket sales. With this, almost 45 million euros have been allocated to the construction of the temple, a figure that is expected to rise to 60 million euros this 2025.