Sagrada Família

The Sagrada Família has been under construction since 1882, longer than the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building have existed combined, and it is still not finished. Antoni Gaudí took over the project in 1883 and worked on it for over 40 years, the last years of his life living on-site, until his death in 1926 — struck by a Barcelona tram, he was so poor and dishevelled that he was initially taken for a beggar. Construction is currently targeted for substantial completion around the centenary of his death, though the central Jesus Christ tower and final ornamentation will likely take longer.

Gaudí broke from every convention of church architecture: the columns lean and branch like trees supporting a stone forest canopy, the facades tell entire stories in stone rather than glass, and the interior floods with colour from stained glass that shifts from cool blues on the Nativity side to warm reds and oranges on the Passion side as the sun crosses the sky. The Nativity Façade, largely completed under Gaudí's own supervision, is dense and joyful; the Passion Façade, built later by Josep Maria Subirachs in a deliberately stark, angular style, is austere and unsettling by comparison — the two sides of the building are meant to feel like different artists made them, because they were.