ONE of Europe’s most well-known attractions is giving away free tickets worth a little under £30 this month.
La Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, is handing out a whopping 20,000 tickets to the public, allowing them to enter the stunning basilica free of charge.
Tickets normally cost between €25-€40 (£20-£32).
The move is part of the celebrations for La Mercè festival, the Catalan capital’s largest public street party, celebrating the festival’s patron saint the Virgin of Grace.
There is a slight snag though as anyone who does get a free entry has only four days to use it – between September 21 and 24.
Locals and tourists are eligible to get their hands on the giveaway.
The iconic building is famously still under construction although now it has a completion date of 2026 – more than 100 years since its master architect Antoni Gaudi died.
Visitors will be able to take a tour of the basilica and learn more about the work being done to complete the Jesus Christ tower, which will become the highest point of the building once it’s finally completed.
A fragment of the prototype of the cross used to crown the tower will be shown to the public for the first time.
La Sagrada Familia, or Sacred Family, draw some 3.2million visitors every years, making it Spain’s most popular visited monument.
To be able to claim a free ticket, visitors have to sign up for a draw – the form to register an interest closes on September 16, and is available on the Sagrada Familia’s official website.
Anyone wanting to see Gaudi’s other work can head to Park Guell in Barcelona.
Outside of Barcelona, tourists can also visit the town of Comillas to see Gaudi’s El Capricho villa.
And The Sun’s Sophie Swietochowski recently visited Barcelona – here’s how to find £14 flights and secret tapas bars.
The cornerstone was laid more than 140 years ago and the building is still not finished
The project was designed by Francisco de Paula del Villar in 1882.
It’s cornerstone is laid by Bishop Urquinaona on March 19, that year.
Famed modernist architect Antoni Gaudi takes over the project in 1883, while still working on other buildings.
In 1885, the Chapel of Saint Joseph is inaugurated in the crypt and the first masses are held.
1891 Work begins on the Nativity facade.
Antoni Gaudi starts working full-time on the temple in 1914 and will do so until his death in June 1926.
The Saint Barnabas bell tower on the Nativity facade is completed in 1925.
Gaudi dies in 1926 and his disciple Domènec Sugranyes takes over the project.
In 1936 the building is vandalised during the Spanish Civil War. Plans and photographs are burnt and the plaster models, smashed.
Work continues in 1939 thanks to the material that could be saved from Gaudí’s workshop and that was reconstructed from published plans and photographs.
The staircase on the Nativity facade is built, and the facade is lit up for the first time in 1952.
The foundation for the Passion facade is laid in 1954.
A sculpture representing the Holy Family is put in place, created by Jaume Busquets in 1958.
Francesc de Paula Quintana dies and Isidre Puig i Boada and Lluís Bonet i Garí take over in 1966.
1976 sees the completion of the bell towers on the Passion facade.
Jordi Bonet i Armengol is named head architect and site manager in 1985.
In 1986 work began on the foundations for all the naves, the columns, vaults and façades on the main nave, transepts, crossing and apse. The works were completed in 2010.
On 7 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the Basilica for religious worship and designated it a minor basilica.
Construction begins on the towers of the Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ in 2016.
In July 2018 The Cross is placed on top of the pediment of the Passion facade.
All efforts focus on finishing the tower of the Virgin Mary, the Basilica’s second tallest at 138 metres in 2021.
On December 8, 2021, the Sagrada Família inaugurated the tower of the Virgin Mary with a mass as the central event and, afterwards, the blessing of the tower and the first lighting of the star on the second-tallest tower, which is now complete.
On November 12, 2023 the Sagrada Família inaugurated the four the towers of the Evangelists, with the central event of the mass and the subsequent blessing and lighting up for the first time.
As part of the central group of towers, the four towers of the Evangelists surround the tower of Jesus Christ and are the Temple’s third tallest, standing 135 metres tall.
Together with the tower of the Virgin Mary, five of the six central towers have been completed.
The central tower of Jesus Christ is scheduled for completion in 2026.
