The one in Barcelona plans to place the last piece of its tallest tower this Friday. Since eight in the morning, the large crane has been working to deposit the upper arm of the cross that will crown the tower of Jesus. With the maneuver, the temple will reach 172.5 meters, its maximum height, and will modify the silhouette of the city. The tower, where the scaffolding will need to be removed and the interior finished, will be inaugurated on June 10, coinciding with the centenary of the death of the architect Antoni Gaudí. For the anniversary, a visit by Pope Leo XIV, invited by the basilica, is expected, but the Vatican has not yet confirmed it.
The delicate maneuver was scheduled for last week, but the gale that affected the Catalan capital delayed it. It was not until this Friday that the wind gave a truce and the operation will be carried out, like all construction work, with the presence of visitors inside and outside the temple. The construction board broadcasts the operation live on its social media profiles: Tiktok, You Tube and .
The upper piece of the cross of the tower of Jesus Christ had been waiting for at least two weeks on a roof of the temple, 35 meters high, where the final touches have been made. The mass, which weighs more than 12 tons, will be placed with the expertise of crane driver José Encina who works in a cabin 140 meters high with a boom that, fully deployed, reaches 200 meters. At the top, climbers await you at the cross. The supervisor of all the work, who coordinates a team of 150 people, is the one with whom this newspaper toured the roofs, forklifts and scaffolding of the temple a few weeks ago.
In total, the cross measures 17 meters high, the equivalent of a five-story building, and 13 meters wide. It is white, ceramic, and Gaudí wanted the sun to reflect on it and shine during the day. The cross has 15,000 ceramic pieces, taken from 500 different molds and seven shades of white. In recent months, the construction board has worked on placing the lower arm of the cross first (in November and October) and during the month of December and January they were placed.
Since last October 31, when it reached 162.9 meters high, the Sagrada Familia has been relegated to the Main Church of Ulm, in Germany. Unlike most buildings, in the , the Sagrada Familia has not grown in height, but in phases. Before he died, Gaudí left the Nativity façade very advanced and finished the Barnabas tower, to show a part of the temple and to continue attracting donations. A century later, the complex is practically finished in height: the basilica, the façades of the Birth and the Passion (with sculptures by Josep Maria Subirachs), the towers of the apostles, those of the four evangelists, that of Mary (inaugurated in 2021) and, as of this Friday, the exterior of that of Jesus.
