Gaudí Centennial: 1926-2026

Gaudí died on 10 de junio de 1926. One hundred years later, on the same day, the basilica that he had left unfinished held a mass presided over by a pope and lit up, for the first time, the tallest tower in its history. The coincidence was not entirely accidental—work had been done for years to make it happen—but it also didn't turn out exactly as planned: the date had been set to mark the completion of the temple, and the temple is not yet finished.

This page details what actually happened during the centennial year, who organized each event — because there were three distinct programs that the press constantly mixed up — and where everything stood at the end.

The first milestone of the year wasn't a ceremony but a crane. On February 20, 2026, the upper arm of the cross of the Christ the Redeemer tower was installed, a block measuring 4.5 by 4.5 by 4.9 meters, and with it, the tower and the entire complex of the six central towers were completed on the exterior. The temple reached its 172.5 meters in height.

The entire cross measures seventeen meters high by thirteen and a half meters wide. It was manufactured in Germany during 2025 and was erected in seven pieces, after being pre-assembled on a platform fifty-four meters above the central building. It is covered with white glazed ceramic and glass, and at the base of the terminal, there are three Latin inscriptions: Tu solus Sanctus, Tu solus Dominus, Tu solus Altissimus.

The record, on the other hand, had been broken before. On October 27, 2025, when the lower arm of the cross was installed, the temple reached 162.91 meters, surpassing the 161.53 meters of the Ulm Minster, which had held the record for the tallest church in the world since 1890. It is important to be precise with the terminology: Ulm is not a cathedral but a Lutheran church, and the Sagrada Familia is also not a cathedral but a minor basilica, and the record refers to churches, not to religious buildings in general.

The day began at ten in the morning with a floral tribute at Gaudí's tomb, in the crypt, where he has been buried since 1926 in the chapel of the Virgen del Carmen. In the afternoon, at 19:30, a solemn mass was held, presided over by Pope Leo XIV, as part of an apostolic visit to Spain. Cardinals, bishops, and priests concelebrated, along with musicians and choirs from all over Catalonia.

More than four thousand people attended the event inside, by invitation only, and another four thousand watched the ceremony from Marina Street, in front of the Nativity scene. The basilica distributed four thousand two hundred tickets through the parishes. The King and Queen of Spain, the President of the Government, and the President of the Generalitat were also present.

After the mass concluded, the Pope exited the temple and blessed the tower of Jesus Christ, which was illuminated that night for the first time. In his homily, he described the basilica as a temple still under construction rather than as an unfinished work, he called Gaudí a fervent architect of faith, and he defined the building as a catechism made of stone, color, and light.

A detail that says a lot about how everything was prepared: the pre-event press conference was not held in an auditorium, but inside the Jesucristo tower, eighty meters above the ground.

Here's the confusion worth clearing up, because it explains why the figures you read contradict each other depending on the newspaper. During 2026, three things with different organizers, budgets, and perimeters coexisted.

The basilica's program was organized into four phases. The first, in the fall of 2025, included an international concert of European choirs, and on November 30th, the centennial of a smaller but significant anniversary: the completion of the bell tower of Saint Barnabas, the only tower that Gaudí saw finished. The second phase led up to March 19th, the anniversary of the laying of the first stone in 1882, with a Mass of Saint Joseph and a concert by the Orfeo Català. The third phase culminated on June 10th. The fourth phase took place in the fall.

It's the title that is least well explained of the three, and it has a simple answer. It is awarded jointly by UNESCO and the International Union of Architects, and the criteria are stated: it is given to the city that hosts the World Congress of that organization. It is not an award for the architectural quality of the city; it is the consequence of having won the bid to host a congress.

The program ran from February 12th to December 13th across the ten districts of the city, with a reference building in each, involving more than one hundred and seventy institutions, one hundred and forty-three exhibitions, more than five hundred itineraries and guided tours, three hundred debates, and approximately one hundred and forty workshops.

The part that will remain when the year is forgotten is tangible: the transformation of ten previously blank walls into green facades, selected through an international ideas competition for young architects organized by the City Council together with the two organizations. This is the only part of the program that will still be there in twenty years.

The other topic that was discussed extensively during the centennial, and often with considerable inaccuracy, is the process of canonization. It's important to use the precise terminology, because the difference is not merely a matter of nuance.

The process was initiated in 2003. On April 14, 2025, Pope Francis authorized the decree regarding the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Antoni Gaudí i Cornet, and with that, Gaudí became venerable. The decree describes him as a faithful layperson, and it contains a detail that almost no one mentions: it states that he was born on June 25, 1852, "probably in Reus," leaving the old dispute with Riudoms unresolved.

Venerable is the first step of three. To be beatified requires a recognized miracle; to be canonized, a second one. Gaudí is neither blessed nor a saint, and as of the date of this page there is no record of any completed beatification process. The nickname "God's architect" is journalistic, not a title.

One circumstance gave that decree extra resonance: it was signed a week before the death of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025, and several media outlets presented it as one of his last acts.

The obstacle is not constructive. It is the escalinata de la Gloria (Stairway to Glory), which, in order to exist, requires demolishing part of two blocks of housing between Mallorca and Aragó streets. The project was planned since the General Metropolitan Plan of 1976, and the urban planning file has not even begun. The president of the construction company assumes that it will end up in court.

Asked in June 2026, the chief architect spoke of perhaps ten years for the Gloria towers, and of having most of the temple completed in just over ten years. Neither of these is a firm date. And the list of promised dates that have not been met, which we recount in the history of the temple, is already long.

It is worth saying without drama, because it is not bad news: the Sagrada Família is an expiatory church, built with donations and with the tickets of those who visit it, and its pace has always depended on that. The fact that the centenary did not see it finished is exactly what happened on each of the previous dates.

Three things, and none of them are a ceremony. The first is the tower: the silhouette of Barcelona has changed, and that change is permanent. The second is the ten green facades of the World Capital of Architecture. The third, less visible, is a change in method: the study that in February 2026 confirmed Gaudí's authorship of the Xalet del Catllaràs was presented as the first scientific protocol for architectural attribution applied to his work, and it opens the door to reviewing those whose authorship is not yet proven.

For the visitor, there is also a practical effect that will last for years: almost all guides written before 2026 are now outdated. They still say that the tower is under construction, that the basilica will be completed in 2026, or that Gaudí is in the process of being beatified. None of these three things are true today.