Barcelona. Tourists and Barcelona residents can finally admire the illumination of the four evangelist towers of the Sagrada Família, construction of which was completed a few days ago. The towers are crowned by the winged figures of the tetramorph, the representation of the four evangelists in their allegorical form. The symbolism is strong because they surround the future tower of Jesus Christ, which will be the highest point of the basilica (172.5 meters high) and which should be completed in 2026 for the centenary of the death of the architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926).
A mass of blessing in honor of the four 135 meter high towers, located in the central part of the modernist building, was celebrated on November 12 by the Apostolic Nuncio Bernardito Auza, and co-celebrated by the Archbishop of Barcelona, Joan Josep Omella, and the auxiliary bishops. It marks the highly anticipated start of the illuminations of the four towers, which will be lit until Boxing Day.
Concrete wings
Last September, the tower of Saint Matthew the Evangelist was crowned with a figure of an angel, designed by the Spanish sculptor Xavier Medina-Campeny, and the tower of Saint John the Evangelist, with the sculpture of an eagle . The other two towers, that of Saint Mark decorated with a lion and that of Saint Luke decorated with a bull, were completed in 2022. Each sculpture weighs nine tons, and their wings, identical for the four evangelists, are built in concrete with steel reinforcement.
The construction committee of the Sagrada Família, a project financed mainly by admission tickets, had initially planned for the work to be completed in 2024, but the pandemic disrupted these forecasts. One hundred and forty years after the laying of the first stone, the building designed by the famous Catalan architect is finally entering its final phase of work, with a total of thirteen towers completed out of the eighteen that it will have at the end of the works, including the Towers of the Twelve Apostles (eight built so far) and the Tower of the Virgin Mary, completed in 2021.
To commemorate the completion of this part of the work, the Sagrada Família has scheduled different activities throughout the month of November. The festivities began with a concert by the Barcelona municipal orchestra, followed by a symposium on the meaning of the towers and a drawing competition for students aged 16 to 25.
The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
