ARCHIVED - Coronavirus stalls construction of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

The Construction Board says the 2026 deadline for the 100th anniversary of the death of the architect, will be impossible to meet

Construction work at one of Barcelona’s top tourist attractions, the incomplete Basilica of the Sagrada Familia will not conclude in 2026, as planned, due to the stoppage of work and the decrease in income caused by Covid-19.

This was the announcement made on Wednesday by the delegate president of the Construction Board of the Sagrada Familia, Esteve Camps, who has acknowledged that the deadline is "impossible" to meet.

He maintains that works will resume in about two weeks and that the Tower of the Mother of God ( la torre de la Madre de Dios) will be completed in 2021 as planned.

"The effects of the COVID pandemic have forced us to rethink the calendar we had planned. This affects the goal we had set for 2026, which coincided with the centenary of the death of the architect Antoni Gaudí. The current context and circumstances do not allow us to plan long-term future horizons with sufficient guarantees," Camps said.

The coronavirus pandemic has not only hit the physical construction works, it has also hit the revenue stream generated by the relentless flow of tourists packing into this marvellous building, with tourism one of the worst-hit sectors of business in Spain.

In 2019, ticket sales provided 100 million euros of income to pay for the ongoing building works, but the downturn in tourism means that the Construction Board can now forecast only 17 million euros of available budget for next year.

In the summer of 2019 there were an average of 15,600 visitors a day, but this year ticket sales have not exceeded 2,000 tickets on a single day of the summer season due to the coronavirus crisis.