(ZENIT News / Barcelona, 14.03.2025).- The central tower of the church of the Holy Family in Barcelona will measure 172 meters and will be the world’s highest. Foreseen is that its construction will be finished in 2026. Up to now, the Cathedral of Ulm, in Germany’s Baden-Wurtemberg state, on the shores of the Danube, has held the record of the highest tower, with a hight of 162 meters.
The Expiatory Church of the Holy Family is a Basilica designed by Antoni Gaudi, greatest exponent of modernist architecture in Spain. It’s construction began in 1882 by the initiative of bookseller Josep Maria Bacadella and priest Saint Josep Manyanet, Founder of the Congregation of the Sons of the Holy Family and of the Congregation of the Missionary Daughters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, promoters of devotion to the Holy Family and of the Christian education of children and young people.
The Holy Family church has a Latin cross plan and five naves, with a three-aisle transept. The apse has seven chapels. The façades of the Nativity, Passion, and Glory of Jesus surround the eighteen towers, four on each portal to complete the number of the twelve Apostles and four above the transept dedicated to the Evangelists. Another above the apse is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The central dome in honour of Jesus reaches 172.5 meters. Gaudi had a profound spirituality and imbued the entire design of the Basilica with a great deal of symbolism. His beatification process is underway.
Torsten Krannich, Dean of Ulm Minster, welcomed without envy the completion of the tower of the Holy Family in Barcelona, which was built with cranes made in Ulm, as he said to the internet portal domradio.de on February 13: «For us, who work in the Cathedral, it’s not a problem (…) And we don’t raise it at all. I think it’s wonderful that we have such large companies here in the region that are capable of building something on such world-class buildings.»
