Pope Leo XIV Blesses Towering Spire of Sagrada Familia, Now the World's Tallest Church

Pope Leo XIV celebrated an evening Mass at Barcelona's Sagrada Familia on Wednesday and offered his blessing to the basilica's soaring central spire, the highlight of a weeklong trip to Spain that has drawn enormous crowds to the unfinished masterpiece of architect Antoni Gaudi.

The pope's visit was timed to the centenary of Gaudi's death. The Catalan architect, who devoted the final decades of his life to the church and is buried in its crypt, died on June 10, 1926, after being struck by a tram in Barcelona. More than a century after construction began in 1882, the basilica has finally claimed a new superlative: with the recent completion of its Tower of Jesus Christ, it now stands as the tallest church in the world.

That central tower rises 172.5 meters, or about 566 feet, and is crowned by a gigantic, five-story ceramic cross that was raised into place earlier this year. The structure edged out Germany's Ulm Minster, long the tallest church on the planet, and gave the modernist landmark a place in the record books that Gaudi himself envisioned more than a hundred years ago. The pope blessed the highest point of the basilica during the service, a moment that organizers cast as both a spiritual and architectural milestone.

The Sagrada Familia holds a particular place in the modern history of the Catholic Church in Spain. Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the building as a basilica in 2010, an act that transformed it from a perpetual construction site into a functioning place of worship. That consecration helped fuel a surge in tourism: annual visits climbed from roughly three million before the ceremony to nearly five million by 2025, with ticket revenue helping to finance the ongoing work.

Wednesday's Mass came near the end of a high-profile papal journey through Spain that has tested the appeal of Leo XIV, the first American-born pope, who was elected in 2025. Large crowds have greeted him at each stop, and Vatican officials have pointed to the enthusiasm as a sign of the church's enduring draw in a country where Mass attendance has declined for decades.

Construction on the Sagrada Familia is not finished even now. Workers continue to complete decorative elements and final towers, with crews racing to wrap up remaining work in the years ahead. For Barcelona, a city where Gaudi's whimsical, nature-inspired designs define the skyline, the pope's blessing of the completed central spire marked a singular convergence of faith, art and the long arc of an architect's unfinished dream.