Star Metro - Barcelona's Sagrada Familia lights up new towers

NYSE - LSE

RIO	0.7%	62.54	$
CMSD	0.21%	24.39	$
SCS	1.65%	17	$
CMSC	0.33%	24.38	$
BTI	1.83%	57.31	$
RBGPF	0%	77.27	$
NGG	0.55%	71.07	$
GSK	2.36%	41.48	$
BCE	0.66%	24.3	$
BCC	3.53%	89.01	$
AZN	0.36%	81.1	$
JRI	0.71%	14.12	$
RYCEF	3.03%	15.19	$
RELX	2.59%	46.33	$
VOD	1.77%	11.86	$
BP	-0.84%	34.47	$

Barcelona's Sagrada Familia lights up new towers

CULTURE 12.11.2023

Barcelona's Sagrada Familia lights up new towers / Photo: Josep LAGO - AFP

A celebratory light show graced the newest towers of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia basilica on Sunday as the iconic attraction moves closer to completion 141 years after construction started.

Text size:

The final two of the four Towers of the Evangelists, 135 metres (443 feet) high and dedicated to Matthew and John, were finished in September with the addition of figures representing a human bust and an eagle.

The other two, dedicated to Luke and Mark and crowned by cow and lion sculptures, were completed last year.

Archbishop of Barcelona Juan Jose Omella blessed the structures in the basilica on Sunday before the light show kicked off.

The towers will be the basilica's third highest once the site is completed. Only the Tower of Jesus Christ, designed by famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi to be the building's summit, remains unfinished.

The developers expect to finish the tower in 2026, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.

The basilica's construction committee initially set a 2026 target to complete the entire basilica, but the Covid-19 pandemic set back the project.

The Sagrada Familia "will be finished in 10 years maximum" barring major problems, the head of the committee's board, Esteve Camps, told local newspaper La Vanguardia on Sunday.

M.Johnston--SMC

Featured

For theatre legend John Kani, art must 'speak truth to power'

South African stage legend John Kani shuffled between rows of red chairs in the 450-seat theatre named after him, searching for one in particular.

Guinea's Tierno Monenembo: stolen words and diehard critic of military rule

Guinean writer Tierno Monenembo will boycott his country's upcoming constitutional referendum, calling the vote a "farce". Unwaveringly critical of the authoritarian junta in power, he said he is ready to "die for his ideas".

'Your own brother': Student supporters mourn Charlie Kirk

For university student Dave Sanchez, seeing Trump acolyte Charlie Kirk murdered during a campus event was like watching his own brother get shot.

False AI 'fact-checks' stir online chaos after Kirk assassination

With a fire hose of misinformation surrounding the assassination of US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, social media users have turned to AI chatbots for reliable updates -- only to encounter contradictory or inaccurate responses, further fueling online confusion.