Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família got a building permit 137 years after construction began.
A view of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. Photo by Alex Reiss on Unsplash.
More than 137 years after its first stone was laid, Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família finally got its building permit.
In 2016, officials in Barcelona realized the eye-popping basilica and beloved tourist attraction had never received planning permission. On Friday, Barcelona’s city council granted the project its first permit for €4.6 million ($5.2 million), deputy mayor in charge of urban planning Janet Sanz told the AFP. Per the terms of the new permit, the building will be completed in 2026, reaching a final height of 172 meters (about 564 feet) and a total budget of €374 million ($423.7 million).
According to the official Sagrada Família blog, a permit for the basilica was filed in 1885 with the town council of Sant Martí de Provençals, a community that laid on the outskirts of Barcelona at the time but has since become fully integrated into the city. However, the town council never responded. Now, with Barcelona’s official municipal blessing, Gaudí’s Gesamtkunstwerk is cleared for its final construction phase, which would see the Sagrada Família completed some 144 years after construction began.
Further Reading: The Tortured 136-Year History of Building Gaudí’s Sagrada Família
