(ANSA) - MADRID, 02 AUG - The latest available estimate of the total cost to complete the construction of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Antonio Gaudí's masterpiece begun in 1882 and never finished, is just over 374 million euros. Loriport today the newspaper El País, which explains that it has had access to a document approved by the municipality of Barcelona in 2019, which establishes the budget necessary to complete the work.
The plan had been presented to obtain the construction permit for the Sagrada Familia to the private canonical foundation responsible for the construction sites, never officially granted in the previous 137 years. At the time it was thought that it would be possible to finish them in 2026, a goal declared unattainable in September 2020, after the start of the covid pandemic.
According to a recent article by La Vanguardia, the bulk of the work will not be able to start again before 2024, due to the drastic reduction in revenues caused by the lower volume of tourism from March 2020 onwards. The current forecast is that next year the number of tourists visiting the Sagrada Familia will reach 50% of that of 2019 (when they were, on average, 12,000 per day).
Currently, the construction of one of the towers foreseen in the Gaudí project and not yet completed, the Tower of Maria, is continuing. The goal is to finish it by the end of this year: its overall height will be 138 meters.
(HANDLE).