What Does the Sagrada Família Look Like With the New Tower of Jesus Christ?

The Sagrada Família now has a single dominant central spire that soars above everything else, crowned by a giant illuminated cross — and it has completely changed the building’s silhouette. As of February 2026, the Tower of Jesus Christ rises to 172.5 metres, making it not only the highest point of the basilica but the tallest church tower in the world. If your mental picture comes from older photographs or a previous visit, the building standing in Barcelona today looks genuinely different from the one you remember.

Here’s exactly what changed, what it looks like up close, and where to go to see it at its best.

How the skyline changed

For most of its long history, the Sagrada Família was recognisable for its clusters of pointed, honeycomb-textured towers — a busy, almost symmetrical crown of spires with no single one clearly dominant. That was always a temporary state. Gaudí’s full design called for a strict hierarchy of towers, but for over a century the tallest of them simply hadn’t been built.

That’s no longer the case. The Tower of Jesus Christ now sits at the very centre of the composition, rising well above everything around it. Surrounding it are the four Towers of the Evangelists — dedicated to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — each standing at 135 metres and topped with sculptures of their traditional symbols (a winged man, a lion, an ox and an eagle). Just beside the central tower stands the Tower of the Virgin Mary, crowned with a twelve-pointed star that lights up over Barcelona’s Eixample district every single night.

The result is a clear visual hierarchy that finally matches Gaudí’s original drawings. From across the city, the basilica now reads as one unified vertical form pointing skyward, exactly as its architect intended more than a hundred years ago. The change is subtle to a first-time viewer but striking to anyone who knew the old silhouette.

The cross at the top

The crowning element is a four-armed cross that stands roughly 17 metres tall — about the height of a five-storey building — and around 13.5 metres wide across its arms. It wasn’t lifted into place in one piece. Instead, it was assembled from seven separate sections raised over time: the lower arm first, then the central core, then the four lateral arms, and finally the upper arm, which was installed on 20 February 2026 to complete the structure.

At night, the cross is illuminated, and it has quickly become one of the most arresting sights in Barcelona after dark. Watching it glow against the evening sky from a nearby rooftop or square is the kind of thing that lingers in your memory long after the trip.

There’s a hidden detail worth knowing too. Inside the upper arm of the cross, at its very highest point, sits a sculpture of the Agnus Dei — the Lamb of God. Gaudí envisioned this lamb at the centre of the cross so that it would be perfectly visible from within the cross itself, a piece of symbolism tucked into the highest point of the tallest church on Earth.

What it looks like up close

Standing at the base and looking straight up, the scale is genuinely difficult to take in. The central tower’s mass draws your eye upward through layer after layer of intricate stonework toward the cross at the summit. The surrounding towers, which for so long felt like the main event, now serve to frame and visually support the central spire — exactly the supporting role Gaudí designed for them.

It’s worth remembering that the exterior cladding and some finishing details on the central tower are still being completed, with interior work continuing through 2027 and 2028. Depending on precisely when you visit, you may still see some working areas near the top. For most visitors this barely registers against the overall impact, and it’s a reminder that you’re seeing a living, still-evolving piece of architecture.

The view from inside

The completion changed the exterior dramatically, but the interior remains the reason most people fall in love with the place. Gaudí designed the central space as a stone forest: columns branch toward the ceiling like trees, splitting into smaller limbs to support the vaults, so that standing in the nave feels like looking up through a canopy. Light filters through the stained glass and shifts in colour through the day — warm reds and oranges on the Passion side in the afternoon, cooler blues and greens elsewhere in the morning.

With the central tower now structurally complete, the building finally has the vertical drama Gaudí planned to draw the eye and the spirit upward, both inside and out.

Best places to see the new tower

To really appreciate the new silhouette, view it from a little distance rather than standing right at the base, where the surrounding buildings and the sheer height make it hard to see the whole composition.

• Plaça de Gaudí, the park to the western side, gives you the classic postcard shot — the towers reflected in the pond at the right time of day.
• Plaça de la Sagrada Família on the opposite side offers a different angle, looking up at the Nativity façade.
• Rooftop bars and terraces around the Eixample put the illuminated cross at eye level after dark, which is spectacular.
• Higher viewpoints around the city, such as the hills toward Park Güell or Montjuïc, now show the central tower standing out clearly above the rest of the skyline.

For photography, early morning and the hour around sunset give the warmest, most flattering light on the honey-coloured stone. After dark, the illuminated cross becomes the star of the show.

Want to see it for yourself?

2026 is the centenary of Gaudí’s death and the year the central tower was completed, which makes it an especially meaningful time to step inside and look up at the newly finished summit.

If you can, try to time your visit for late afternoon. That way you experience the shifting interior light during the day and then catch the illuminated cross as you leave in the evening — two completely different faces of the same building in a single visit.

The short version

The Sagrada Família today is crowned by a single soaring central tower topped with a 17-metre illuminated cross, reaching 172.5 metres and reshaping Barcelona’s skyline. After 144 years, the building’s exterior finally matches the vision its architect sketched out over a century ago — and you can see it now.