The Sagrada Familia

Overview: 

The unfin­ished mas­ter­piece of Antoni Gau­di, the stun­ning and tow­er­ing Sagra­da Famil­ia stands as a tow­er­ing Basil­i­ca in the heart of the incred­i­ble Cat­alon­ian city of Barcelona – with its soar­ing spi­ralling tow­ers, stun­ning archi­tec­tur­al design and daz­zling spir­i­tu­al­ly invok­ing inte­ri­or the incred­i­ble Sagra­da Famil­ia stands as not just an icon­ic inspir­ing holy mon­u­ment, but thanks to the unique archi­tec­ture, it’s sto­ried his­to­ry and its reli­gious sig­nif­i­cance a true won­der of the world.   

Esti­mat­ed to be com­plet­ed in 2026  — more that 140 years after its ini­tial con­struc­tion and exact­ly a cen­tu­ry after Gau­di passed away, when com­plet­ed the Sagra­da Famil­ia will have 18 tow­ers each stretch­ing more than 100 feet into the Barcelona Sky, with the largest being ded­i­cat­ed to Jesus Christ and the remain­ing 17 rep­re­sent­ing his apos­tles, the vir­gin Mary and the four evan­ge­lists – which com­ple­ment the many carved depic­tions of sig­nif­i­cant Chris­t­ian reli­gious teach­ings, lessons, faiths and beliefs which are carved into the sand­stone columns that sup­port the tem­ple.  

With a stun­ning explorable inte­ri­or – which fea­tures a unique Nave with incred­i­ble paint­ings and stat­ues as well as a stun­ning crypt, a tow­er­ing ceil­ing com­posed of carved root branch­es rep­re­sent­ing ever­last­ing life and the icon­ic stained-glass win­dows – which illu­mi­nate with the daz­zling Cat­alon­ian sun­set – the medieval Basil­i­ca relies sole­ly on pub­lic dona­tions for both its upkeep and restora­tion works which are esti­mat­ed to have cost €375 mil­lion – and it’s lucky the pub­lic have been so gen­er­ous over the years with the Span­ish Civ­il war in 1936 see­ing major parts of the orig­i­nal Sagra­da Famil­ia being sad­ly destroyed.  

Although work on its cre­ation began in 1882 and remains ongo­ing, the Sagra­da Famil­ia attracts mil­lions of vis­i­tors each year and a trip to this stun­ning Basil­i­ca is an awe-inspir­ing and spir­i­tu­al­ly and reli­gious expe­ri­ence, with the incred­i­ble designs of Gau­di – com­bined with the unique archi­tec­tur­al exte­ri­or and the faith hope and belief that the beau­ti­ful inte­ri­or holds and invokes mak­ing a trip to this unique mon­u­ment poten­tial­ly life chang­ing and mak­ing Gaudi’s unfin­ished mas­ter­piece of the Sagra­da Famil­ia a true won­der of the world.  

Where:

The Sagra­da Famil­ia is found in the heart of the stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful city of Barcelona in Cat­alo­nia in the Eix­am­ple dis­trict. 

Getting there:

The Sagra­da Famil­ia is found in the mid­dle of the stun­ning town of Barcelona – so hav­ing arrived in the cen­tre of Barcelona which is eas­i­ly done by fly­ing into Barcelona’s Air­port El Prat de Llo­bre­gat – and jump­ing on a bus to the city cen­tre you have the option of fol­low­ing the many street signs towards the spi­ralling tow­ers of the Sagra­da Famil­ia which is found in the Eix­am­ple dis­trict close to the tourist area of Gra­cia and from where you can begin your explo­ration.  

While we’d advice walk­ing to the won­der from Barcelona city cen­tre – as you’ll get to tram­ple the incred­i­ble streets of Barcelona – for those prone to get­ting lost or who are short on time you can also take the Metro to the Sagra­da Famil­ia – with both the L2 and L5 lines offer­ing easy access to the won­der and set­ting you back €2 a pop for each ride.  

Once you’ve made your way to the Sagra­da Famil­ia you’ll have to explore it on foot (r by ele­va­tor if you choose to go up the Steeples) – and you can head to the gen­er­al entrance on the Car­rer de la Mari­na.  

Best time to Visit:

While the Sagra­da Famil­ia is open year-round (9am – 6pm in win­ter and 8pm in sum­mer) – we’d advise tim­ing your vis­it out­side the win­ter months, where despite the pres­ence of a Christ­mas mar­ket the cold and occa­sion­al snow can detract from your enjoy­ment.  

Instead, we’d sug­gest tim­ing your vis­it for between may – August where the Cat­alon­ian weath­er is at its best and the sun­set views from both the Pla­ca de Gau­di and from the inte­ri­or stained glass win­dows are incred­i­ble – just be sure to vis­it an hour before sun­set to get those incred­i­ble pho­tos and for a tru­ly incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence.  

Vis­it­ing dur­ing sun­set — While the inte­ri­or of the cathe­dral is mes­mer­iz­ing any­time, the best time to vis­it Sagra­da Famil­ia is dur­ing sun­set and I think you would regret it if you missed the beau­ti­ful gold­en light reflect­ing from the count­less stained glass win­dows! 

This is actu­al­ly the best fea­ture of the Basil­i­ca and see­ing it dur­ing Gold­en Hour when the sun reflects direct­ly onto the stained glass is Antoni Gaudi’s exact rea­son for cre­at­ing La Sagra­da Famil­ia as he did. 

Explore: 

Although the Sagra­da Família still remains under con­struc­tion – and is sub­ject to occa­sion­al refur­bish­ment work – it’s still an incred­i­ble, acces­si­ble and awe-inspir­ing spir­i­tu­al won­der – both on the exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or.  

Aim­ing towards the con­struc­tion of 18 incred­i­ble and icon­ic tow­ers – as was Antoni Gaudí’s vision –  the cen­tre and largest tow­er seeks to rep­re­sent Jesus Christ, with the 12 accom­pa­ny­ing and sur­round­ing tow­ers are there to rep­re­sent each of Jesus’s apos­tles – with four tow­ers des­ig­nat­ed for the evan­ge­lists and the last one there to watch over Jesus sig­ni­fy­ing his moth­er Mary – although at present only 10 tow­ers have been con­struct­ed, so the archi­tects have work to do ! 

Con­sid­ered Gaudi’s holy mis­sion, the won­der is now only pub­licly fund­ed as work con­tin­ues to com­plete by the end of the decade – almost 100 years after Gaudi’s death, with the Span­ish Civ­il war in piac­u­lar caus­ing destruc­tion and delays to the won­ders progress.  

Still upon (its hope­ful com­ple­tion!) the Sagra­da Família will tow­er over the Barcelona Sky­line reach­ing 170 metres into the soft Span­ish Sky  — with the inside being almost 100 metres wide and con­tain­ing a Crypt, Nave, Alter and some of the most stun­ning reli­gious imagery, depic­tions, sculp­tures and stained win­dows in the world. 

While today only views of the exte­ri­or – and its ongo­ing con­struc­tion, along with the Nave, Crypt, steeples (tow­ers) and of course the muse­um and shop are open to the pub­lic – it’s still an absolute­ly incred­i­bly beau­ti­ful won­der to explore. With the below being out high­lights for vis­it­ing the incred­i­ble Sagra­da Família: 

Outside:

Start­ing with the exte­ri­or – the hon­est truth is that as a result of both the size and the con­struc­tion work ongo­ing to com­plete the Sagra­da Família it’s hard to get both a per­fect pho­to and view of the won­der exter­nal­ly – so what we’d rec­om­mend is head­ing to either the stun­ning park of Pla­ca de Gau­di where you can get incred­i­ble views of the whole of the exte­ri­or of the won­der, or for those who fan­cy a cof­fee over the road to the quaint cafe of the Hotel Ayre while tak­ing in the view from the bal­cony of the exte­ri­or of the upper lev­els of the Sagra­da Família.  

Whether grab­bing a cof­fee, relax­ing in the park or sim­ply observ­ing the incred­i­ble carved exte­ri­or of the won­der from any of the mul­ti­ple van­tage points in Barcelona the first thing thing that will stand out is not only the stun­ning archi­tec­ture – but the numer­ous and incred­i­ble tow­ers – of which 6 are cur­rent­ly com­plet­ed – and of course the main entrance to the Church. 

Tak­ing a moment to look at the incred­i­ble carv­ings on the sand­stone walls of the out­er parts of the out­er parts of the basil­i­ca, you’ll notice mul­ti­ple carved depic­tions of reli­gious scenes from the bible – with each out rep­re­sent­ing and impor­tant les­son in Chris­tian­i­ty and adher­ing to Gaudi’s belief that the Sagra­da Família rep­re­sent­ed his atone­ment to God and his expres­sion of his under­stand­ing of Christ’s mes­sage.  

Along­side this, the most notable ele­ments of the exte­ri­or are the incred­i­ble tow­er­ing tow­ers – which pay homage to the apos­tles, Christ, Mary and the evan­ge­lists – although work con­tin­ues on them he fin­ished tow­ers reach 100 metres into the sky and again are incred­i­ble and beau­ti­ful archi­tec­tur­al exam­ples of the won­der that is the Sagra­da Família. 

While the tow­ers are impress­ing focus­ing fur­ther on the main and com­plet­ed entrance, you’ll notice a series of fur­ther depic­tions which guide vis­i­tors into the inte­ri­or of the basil­i­ca. These depic­tions knows as sper­ate Facades’ depict the birth of Jesus and include the por­tal of hope mer­cy and faith – key mes­sages from the teach­ing of Christ – the façade of the ordeal – where Jesus tor­ture and cru­ci­fix­ion are depict­ed – with these Façade’s sit­ing under the carved tree of life – a depic­tion of Jesus’s mes­sage of ever last­ing life and the pur­pose of his res­ur­rec­tion to save mankind.  

Although fur­ther façades are planned and under con­struc­tion in line with Gaudí’s design – the ongo­ing con­struc­tion of the Sagra­da Família while occa­sion­al­ly mak­ing a bit of a rack­et – does not detract from what is an absolute­ly incred­i­ble and awe inspir­ing archi­tec­tur­al feat – with the stun­ning exte­ri­or of this incred­i­ble Basil­i­ca stand­ing proud as a true reli­gious and spir­i­tu­al tes­ta­ment to faith.  

Hav­ing tak­en as many pho­tos of the incred­i­ble exte­ri­or of the won­der as you can and tak­en time to appre­ci­ate the many carv­ings, tow­ers and façades as you can — it’s time to head into per­haps the only area of the Basil­i­ca that tops the exte­ri­or – the stun­ning inte­ri­or.  

Inside: 

While only select sec­tions – the Nave, Crypt, the steeples (tow­ers) and the muse­um and shop are open to the pub­lic – step­ping inside the main nave for the first time is a tru­ly spir­i­tu­al­ly awak­en­ing and beau­ti­ful expe­ri­ence.  

The Naves: At first you’ll notice and wan­der down the cen­tral nave with four sper­ate ailes at each side which gives devo­tees room to observe mass and take reflec­tion, — with the four Naves specif­i­cal­ly designed to form an incred­i­ble Latin Cross – per­haps best appre­ci­at­ed from above – with there being a 90 metre walk from the ini­tial entrance to the main alter the Sagra­da Famil­ia is one of the biggest reli­gious mon­u­ments on the plan­et – and you’ll be struck not just by the beau­ti­ful inte­ri­or but the almost crys­tal cave like fea­tures of the inte­ri­or design with the famed vault and ceil­ing  reach­ing 45 metres into the ceil­ing for an incred­i­ble ini­tial view.  

Inside, so long as you are appro­pri­ate­ly dressed and respect­ful (this is a place of wor­ship) you are free to take as many pho­tos as you wish – with the many incred­i­ble sculp­tures, paint­ings and the stun­ning stain glass won­ders all adding to the incred­i­ble ini­tial inte­ri­or beau­ty.  

The Ceil­ing Pil­lars: Exam­in­ing the Ceil­ing fur­ther – which will no doubt grab your atten­tion on first view­ing – it’s unique in the way it’s sup­port­ed by a series of pil­lars that cre­ates an almost tree like effect as the trees roots spread down along the wall — rep­re­sent­ing the tree of life and the res­ur­rec­tion and ever last­ing life mes­sage of Jesus Christ.  

With these pil­lars – all cut from unique stone being an archi­tec­tur­al feat and design by Gau­di and cre­at­ing a tru­ly stun­ning and beau­ti­ful inte­ri­or expe­ri­ence to observe and adding to both the unique­ness and spir­i­tu­al ele­ment of the inside of the incred­i­ble Sagra­da Famil­ia. 

The Stained Glass: Won­der­ing fur­ther around the main nave – and you’ll see along­side the incred­i­ble reli­gious stat­ues and depic­tions of Christ which dec­o­rate the walls of the inte­ri­or a series of tru­ly stun­ning stained glass mul­ti-coloured win­dows – in red, yel­low, green and blue. These incred­i­ble win­dows which have become a hall­mark of the stun­ning Sagra­da Famil­ia cre­ate an almost kalei­do­scope of colour that reflects inside the won­der adding to the already spir­i­tu­al ele­ment of the   

The stained-glass win­dows are also one of the best pho­to spots in the inte­ri­or to grab pho­tos of the incred­i­ble won­der – with the Sagra­da famil­ia being specif­i­cal­ly designed by Gau­di to illu­mi­nate at sun set­ting – with the inte­ri­or light­ing up thanks to the mul­ti coloured stained glass to cre­ate a spir­i­tu­al set­ting and a tru­ly stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.  

Of fur­ther note when look­ing at the stun­ning stained-glass win­dows is the depic­tion of the archangel Gabriel’s Annun­ci­a­tion – which sits above the tallest blue glass pan­el, from which there is again anoth­er incred­i­ble depic­tion of reli­gious catholic imagery – with the white dove of peace tow­er­ing over a green tree that sur­vived a storm – which espe­cial­ly when illu­mi­nat­ed by the set­ting sun is one of our favourite pieces of archi­tec­ture in the whole of the basil­i­ca.  

The Rosary Chapel – Mov­ing fur­ther along the main nave of the Sagra­da Famil­ia, you’ll notice a series of chapels, the most famous of which is the rosary chapel – which was com­plet­ed by Gaudí him­self. This chapel – known as the rosary chapel is small in size – but again has been designed to be illu­mi­nate when the sun sets the chapel fills with light.  

Home to mul­ti­ple fur­ther depic­tions and stat­ues the rosary chapel fea­tures a depic­tion of Mary cradling Jesus on his cru­ci­fix­ion and mul­ti­ple depic­tions of old tes­ta­ment sto­ries – includ­ing the temp­ta­tion of Adam and Eve – with both the design, rev­er­ence and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty of the chapel being well worth a vis­it to tru­ly under­stand and explore the reli­gious sig­nif­i­cance of the incred­i­ble won­der.  

The Crypt –Although access to the famous Sagra­da Famil­ia orig­i­nal crypts is pro­hib­it­ed, the low­er leves are known to house the tomb of Gau­di along­side oth­er impor­tant Cat­alon­ian mar­tyrs and fore­fa­thers are buried – with the upper area on the base floor of the Nave being the area where mass is cel­e­brat­ed. 

Built in a tra­di­tion­al neo-goth­ic style the mass lev­el of the crypt is the old­est still stand­ing part of the won­der and fea­tures a main cen­tre – with thir­teen sep­a­rate chapels includ­ing the main and stun­ning altar where com­mu­nion will be offered dur­ing each mass – with the area around the chapel again fea­tur­ing stun­ning depic­tions of sto­ries and mes­sages from the bible – which are an appro­pri­ate trib­ute to the incred­i­ble Gau­di who sits below the main mass area in the stun­ning crypt. 

Attend­ing Mass

For those who want to tru­ly expe­ri­ence the crypt at its best and con­nect emo­tion­al­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly with the awe-inspir­ing set­ting of the Sagra­da Famil­ia – you have the chance to attend mass at the mon­u­ment every Sat­ur­day evening at 8pm or Sun­day morn­ing at 9am – with ser­vices last­ing for an hour. 

While this is a tru­ly incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ty – which is open to all – to explore deep­er into the mean­ing and reli­gion that under­pins the great Sagra­da Famil­ia just under­stand that atten­dance is on a first come basis – and it is a reli­gious ser­vice so be sure to dress and act appro­pri­ate­ly.  

The Gaudí and Sagrada Familia Museum

A great stop off for those who want to learn more about the intrigu­ing fig­ure of Gau­di and his moti­va­tions and life – as well as the con­struc­tion of the won­der the Gau­di and Sagra­da Famil­ia muse­um is found on the ground floor and fea­tures exhi­bi­tions about the ongo­ing con­struc­tion and the life and time of Gau­di – with dig­i­tal con­struc­tion and recre­ation of both the cur­rent state of the won­der and the pro­posed and to be com­plet­ed sec­tions of the Sagra­da Famil­ia – allow­ing explor­ers to deep­en their knowl­edge of this incred­i­ble won­der. 

The Stee­p­els —  The nativ­i­ty Step­pels so named as there exte­ri­or depicts the birth of Christ are not just stun­ning archi­tec­tur­al designs to be admired from out­side – but have also been con­vert­ed into incred­i­ble tow­ers – which for those who are brave enough – allow explor­ers to sum­mit to their top for incred­i­ble views of both Barcelona and up close views of the exte­ri­or of the Sagra­da Famil­ia.  

While entrance to the steeples requires an advance tick­et – there is luck­i­ly an ele­va­tor installed which takes out the need to climb thou­sands of steps – and you’ll arrive at the top of a steeple where you can stare out across the won­der of Cat­alo­nia. If that’s not enough of a rea­son to vis­it you are also able to vis­it each of the steeples by cross­ing a small draw bridge giv­ing you both dif­fer­ent views of Cat­alo­nia.  

Hav­ing tak­en your time at the top of the Steeples – and tak­en in all the incred­i­ble views that they offer you will have to make your way back down through a series of 300 nar­row steps – but it’s well worth it – not only for the incred­i­ble views but also for a chance to climb halfway up the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Sagra­da Famil­ia.  

How long to stay:

We’d advise bud­get­ing half a day for the Sagra­da Famil­ia – begin­ning with a late lunch at the Hotel Ayre oppo­site for stun­ning shots of the exte­ri­or of the won­der – and then won­der­ing over to the won­der in the ear­ly after­noon and spend­ing 3 hours explor­ing it’s incred­i­ble exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or – being sure to time your vis­it inter­nal­ly or at the Pla­ca de Gau­di for sun­set to cap­ture some tru­ly spir­i­tu­al­ly wak­en­ing pho­tos from inside the Basil­i­ca as the evening sun lights up the beau­ti­ful stained class win­dows inside the won­der.  

Top Tip:

While the Atmos­phere around the Sagra­da Famil­ia is relaxed, it’s still an impor­tant catholic Basil­i­ca and sacred and awe-inspir­ing place for many, so the rules about dress­ing appro­pri­ate­ly – no hats, see through cloth­ing, exposed knees or shoul­ders – are still enforced.  

Along­side that while you can buy tick­ets to enter the Sagra­da Famil­ia on the main gate – we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend giv­en its pop­u­lar­i­ty and giv­en the best pho­to spots being at sun­set inside that you book in advance — as this will allow you to guar­an­tee your times­lot and take an awful lot of stress out of your trip.  

Also with the entrance queue often stretch­ing into the Barcelona Sun, we’d advise to invest in the skip the line option on your tick­et when book­ing – as it’ll keep you out of the heat and get you straight into the won­der – for a few euros more it’s def­i­nite­ly a top tip that can make your trip to the incred­i­ble won­der all the more enjoy­able.  

Cost:

Fol­low­ing on from the strong advice to book your tick­ets and tour online and before­hand – which will both guar­an­tee entry, allow you to choose your times­lot and save you from the queues that can stretch long into the Barcelona sun – you can expect to pay €20 to enter the Cathe­dral – includ­ing the the line dis­counts includ­ed – which is good val­ue all things con­sid­ered.  

For those who want to get a more detailed expla­na­tion of the won­der – you can expect to pay an extra €7 for an audio guide or €30 (includ­ing tick­et price) to have the priv­i­lege of a guid­ed tour by a Sagra­da Famil­ia Expert – for those want­i­ng to climb the tow­ers for the incred­i­ble views – your best option is to get an entry and pas­sion tow­er com­bined tick­et which will cost €38 euros – and you’ll be able to ascend the tow­ers for incred­i­ble views of Barcelona – with all tick­et pro­ceeds going to fund the con­struc­tion of the incred­i­ble won­der.  

Just be warned that while the Sagra­da Famil­ia is open all year round – the entrance hours chance with the sea­sons – with the win­ter months see­ing it close as 6pm to time with the ear­ly sun­set and the months through spring – august see­ing it close at 7pm with last entry an hour before – just some­thing to bear in mind for those seek­ing a per­fect sun­set pho­to of the inside of the won­der.  

Fun Fact:

Giv­en it’s immense and tow­er­ing beau­ty the Sagra­da Famil­ia is often con­sid­ered one of the world’s great­est Cathe­drals, which is a com­mon mis­con­cep­tion as thanks to a spe­cial con­se­crat­ed bless­ing by Pop Bene­dict the Six­teenth the Sagra­da Famil­ia is actu­al­ly a Basil­i­ca – giv­ing it spe­cial sta­tus in the Catholic Church.  

Best photo spot: 

On account of the Sagra­da Famil­ia still being under con­struc­tion (unless you’re read­ing this in 2026!) and due to its huge size it’s a lit­tle tough to get a tru­ly stun­ning pho­tos of the exte­ri­or – so what we’d rec­om­mend is for a shot of the exte­ri­or to head to the park of Pla­ca de Gau­di before vis­it­ing for a tru­ly fan­tas­tic wide angle shot of the exte­ri­or of the won­der – or for some­thing a lit­tle clos­er either stay­ing at or tak­ing the trip up to the roof of the Hotel Ayre oppo­site – where you can sip on a tra­di­tion­al Span­ish drink with a full view of the upper exte­ri­or lev­els with the view at either of these spots at sun­set being espe­cial­ly incred­i­ble.  

For the best shots of the inte­ri­or of the Sagra­da Famil­ia there’s two key things to note, the first is to take your shots from the entrance of the inte­ri­or fac­ing the stained-glass win­dows and sec­ond­ly to make sure you time your vis­it for an hour before sun­set and then patient­ly wait inside for the descend­ing sun to shine through the win­dows cre­at­ing a tru­ly beau­ti­ful and spir­i­tu­al effect and moment – as you view the Basil­i­ca as Gau­di intend­ed and take in the stun­ning sight of the incred­i­ble sun set­ting with­in this unique won­der of the world.