Looking Back: The Towers Still Rising
Why is it significant?
Stop here, halfway along the avenue, and turn around. This is the view of the Sagrada Família that the city itself was arranged to give you: the trees parting like curtains and the whole cluster of towers framed at the end of the street. Count what you can see. Gaudí planned eighteen towers.
Key Facts
| Place | Looking Back: The Towers Still Rising |
|---|---|
| Address | Avinguda de Gaudí 50, 08025 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.40850, 2.17460 |
| Part of Walk | Gaudí's Endless Temple to Domènech's Garden Hospital: Sagrada Família & Sant Pau, Barcelona |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop here, halfway along the avenue, and turn around. This is the view of the Sagrada Família that the city itself was arranged to give you: the trees parting like curtains and the whole cluster of towers framed at the end of the street.
Count what you can see. Gaudí planned eighteen towers. Twelve for the apostles, four on each façade, four taller ones for the evangelists, one for the Virgin Mary, and in the centre the tallest of all, the Tower of Jesus Christ. For decades only the eight apostle towers of the two side façades stood, and people assumed the rest would never come.
Then the pace changed. Computers, new stone-cutting machines and the money from millions of tickets made the impossible routine. In December 2021 the Tower of the Virgin Mary was completed, crowned with a twelve-pointed star that lights up at night. The towers of the four evangelists followed, topped with their symbols: the angel, the lion, the ox and the eagle.
And then the central tower. Its planned height is 172.5 metres, which would make the Sagrada Família the tallest church in the world. The goal was to crown it with its great cross in 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death. By the time you hear this, the cross may already stand at the top, or the last pieces may still be going up... look for yourself. Either way, the main Glory façade and its towers will take years longer.
Why 172.5 metres? The story goes that Gaudí wanted his church to stay just below the height of Montjuïc, the hill by the sea, because, as he put it, the work of man should not rise above the work of God. Now turn around again and walk on to the end of the avenue, where the red-brick hospital is waiting across the road.