What Happens When the Sagrada Família Is Finished: The World's Greatest Church, Bells That Have Never Rung, and Lingering Disputes

The Sagrada Família's official name translates as the "Expiatory Church of the Holy Family." The "Holy Family" refers to Jesus Christ, his mother Mary, and her husband Joseph. An "expiatory church," the video explains, is one built solely with donations from ordinary people rather than with funds from the state or the Church.

Construction began in 1882, but the project soon stalled. The following year, Antoni Gaudí, then 31, took over the work. Gaudí completely reworked his predecessor's plan and envisioned a basilica of an entirely new form. That form was complex, and completion was expected to take an extremely long time. Gaudí himself reportedly hinted that it would not be finished within his lifetime.

According to the video, those words came true. In June 1926, the 73-year-old Gaudí was spending his days pouring his heart and soul into building the Sagrada Família and praying to God. He apparently kept wearing the same mended clothes and had grown gaunt from fasting. Gaudí was then struck by a tram. Seeing how he was dressed, people around him mistook him for a beggar, and his treatment was delayed. He died as a result.

Gaudí apparently had not left behind many documents by that point. Then in 1936 the Spanish Civil War broke out, and amid the fighting, Gaudí's workshop was set on fire. Most of the remaining materials were burned. The architects who succeeded him had no choice but to infer Gaudí's intentions from the few documents that escaped the fire and a single drawing published in a newspaper in 1906.

The loss of documents was not the only reason for the delays. With no clear sponsor, funding was a recurring problem. Because construction costs are covered entirely by donations and admission fees, the pace of work was tied directly to the amount of money raised. The project has also taken so long that changes in the law became an issue. According to the video, the Sagrada Família went more than 100 years without a building permit, and official permission was not granted until 2019. Even then, it reportedly cost 36 million euros at the time.

Having overcome these difficulties, the video says, completion has only recently come into view. It speculates that computer-aided design, or CAD, introduced in the late 20th century, and the tourism boom of recent years likely played a part. While the video states that the main structure was completed in 2026, it explains that the Glory Façade—which serves as the main entrance and represents the glory of Jesus Christ—as well as the interior decoration and the grand staircase remain unfinished. Everything is estimated to be completed in the 2030s at the earliest.

The video says that the completion of the Sagrada Família means the completion of the world's greatest church. The Tower of Jesus Christ stands 172.5 meters tall, making it the tallest religious building in the world.

The video explains that this height is known to have been deliberately limited by Gaudí. Montjuïc, the hill overlooking Barcelona, is 173 meters high, and Gaudí apparently treated it as an upper limit. The idea was that something made by human hands should not be taller than a mountain created by God. The video interprets this as showing that Gaudí, a devout Christian, also held God's creations in reverence.

As something that might finally be revealed upon completion, the video points to the basilica's "sound." Gaudí envisioned using the basilica itself as a single musical instrument. Of the 18 towers, 12 are bell towers, and numerous tubular bells were to be installed inside them. Sounds produced by wind or compressed air would pour down into the basilica's interior while also resonating throughout the streets of Barcelona. To achieve these acoustics, Gaudí reportedly even built model bells and experimented with them during his lifetime.

The video says that once completed, the church will demonstrate the splendor of faith not only to the eye but also through sound. At present, however, only one bell has been installed. The rest are scheduled to be installed at the very end, and it has not yet been decided whether all of the bells will be installed. The video leaves this as an open question: will the day come when the sound envisioned by a man more than 100 years ago reaches the present?

Even as completion approaches, there are several reasons why not everything can be said to be going smoothly. One of them is the problem beneath the building. A high-speed rail tunnel running under Barcelona passes just a few meters from the foundations of the Glory Façade now under construction. The architect then in charge of the Sagrada Família voiced strong concern that the tunnel could prove fatal to the building.

The video cites a past incident as grounds for this concern. When the towers of the Nativity Façade, which depicts the birth of Jesus Christ, were built, their weight reportedly caused the ground to sink and cracks to appear in the walls. The video then says that completion also marks the beginning of a responsibility to keep watching over this enormous building into the future, and asks whether construction can be finished without incident.

The cost of losing Gaudí's drawings is still producing bitter disputes today. The plan calls for building a huge staircase spanning a road in front of the Glory Façade. However, apartment buildings already stand on the planned site. According to reports, if the staircase is actually built, around 3,000 people will need to be relocated.

The video explains the difficulty of this problem by comparison. Even with highly public, government-led construction projects such as airports and highways, relocating residents is hard. This, by contrast, is a privately led project, and Gaudí's wishes are not clear. In fact, residents argue that the grand staircase was never part of Gaudí's original plan and strongly oppose being displaced. The truth can no longer be confirmed by anyone. The video expects that this fact will become a major obstacle going forward.

The video also takes up a more fundamental question: can the Sagrada Família completed in the 21st century truly be called Gaudí's work? Many of the drawings and models Gaudí produced were lost in the war. For this reason, some architects flatly object that the parts built after Gaudí's death are not his work. One architect has reportedly harshly criticized the Sagrada Família as "a project without blueprints that borrows Gaudí's name."

The video says this criticism cannot be dismissed as mere nitpicking. As evidence, it points to the scope of the World Heritage designation. What UNESCO has inscribed as a World Heritage Site is only the crypt and the Nativity Façade, which Gaudí worked on during his lifetime. Most of the building, including the Tower of Jesus Christ completed in 2026, is not part of the World Heritage listing.

On the other hand, the architect currently in charge counters that they have thoroughly examined the surviving drawings and testimony, and that the design is faithful to Gaudí's intentions. Gaudí's exact intentions can now only be guessed at. The video says this debate may leave lasting bitterness.

Perhaps because of these uncertainties, the completion of the Sagrada Família is dogged by rumors bordering on urban legend. One of them is that "the world will end when the Sagrada Família is finished." The video dismisses this as baseless nonsense, then speculates on why the rumor arose.

The Glory Façade now under construction is planned to depict the Last Judgment. The Last Judgment is the end of this world, when Jesus Christ returns and people are divided into those granted eternal life and those cast into eternal damnation. In other words, the final piece toward completion literally depicts the end of the world. The video suggests the rumor may have arisen from this.

The story of stone, built up over some 140 years, is nearing its end. Gaudí, who laid its foundation, rests beneath the Virgin Mary in the crypt of the Sagrada Família.

The sound of bells that may someday ring out over the city, and the disputes over Gaudí's intentions—in light of these, the video concludes that it is clear completion does not mean the end. How will people answer the homework left behind by a man who devoted his life to his faith? The video closes with this question.