The Towers of Jesus

Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona, Spain, has been under construction for 125 years. Now it’s ready to hold its first service.

It’s bizarre. Some might call it biz-architecture.

We’re talking about the Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona, Spain. From a distance, the four main towers of the church look like giant drip sand castles on the beach. But as you get closer, you discover that these intricate towers are psychedelic, spindle-shaped, mind-bending masterpieces.

The architect? Antoni Gaudí, born in 1852. Some love his work; some hate it. But everyone agrees that Gaudí is gaudy — showy and ornamental, full of geometric shapes and images plucked from nature.

According to Hemispheres Magazine (May 2009), Gaudí’s church is still incomplete after 125 backbreaking years. When the cornerstone was put in place, Chester A. Arthur was president of the United States, and Queen Victoria was the monarch of England. For all that time, Sagrada Familia has been wrapped in scaffolding and cranes, and the work has inched along, except for the interruption of the Spanish Civil War in ...