In 2023, the Basilica of the Holy Family counted a total of 4,707,641 visitors, a figure that is close to that of 2019, which closed with 4,717,881 visits, and which also represents a progressive recovery compared to 2022 in which a total of 3,781,845 people entered the Basilica.
As the financing of the work is of 100% private origin and, therefore, the source of income for the construction depends on the sale of tickets, this progressive normalization of visits concerning 2019 maintains the favorable course for the completion of the Gaudi project.
The Covid-19 pandemic paralyzed the masses of tourists who came to the Holy Family in Barcelona to admire one of the most important architectural works in our country and the entire world. In the last year, the Cathedral has registered more than four million visits. The number is increasingly similar to what existed pre-pandemic, and this translates into a progressive recovery. The financing of the work is 100% private, and the Cathedral’s source of income depends on the number of visitors it receives and ticket sales.
In November of this past 2023, the blessing of the four new towers of the Holy Family took place. These are the towers of the evangelists. They measure 135 meters and are the third highest in the temple. The symbols of the four evangelists: the bull, the eagle, the angel in human form, and the lion crown the end of each of the columns.
An architect with a testimony of faith
A man of faith, a great observer of nature and a brilliant architect, Antoni Gaudí has become a universal figure of modern architecture. His contribution to this discipline broke with established patterns. The testimony of faith that he offered in life has been captured in his most important work, the Holy Family in Barcelona.
Gaudí experienced his conversion when preparing for the construction of this building with a period of fasting. As the architect himself explained, he followed the advice of Fray Angelico, who explained that “whoever wishes to paint Christ has only one way: to live with Christ.”
Since then, he devoted himself to a humble life focused on the Lord, whom he found the best way to serve in the construction of the Holy Family, a project to which he dedicated the last twelve years of his life and which, still today, for forty years after his death, it is under construction.
