Spanish city is home to one of Europe’s most popular attractions

There are plenty of reasons to visit Barcelona: delicious tapas, a thriving art scene, beaches within easy reach, and an eclectic mix of architecture. Plus, Britons can enjoy a relatively short flight time from UK airports. However, the city is also home to what has been described as “Europe‘s most popular attraction” for 2024.

Standing tall in the Eixample Right district of Barcelona is the Sagrada Familia, a jaw-dropping church from Antoni Gaudi representing Catalan Modernism, Art Nouveau, Noucentisme, and Spanish Late Gothic architecture.

Despite work on the church beginning in 1882, there is still more to be done and the final project is not expected to be completed until 2026. This is partly due to the intricate nature of Gaudi’s incredible designs, but also due to construction having stopped several times over the years.

The death of Gaudi was one of the first instances to have halted the progress of the church’s construction. Ten years later, when the Spanish Civil War broke out, the construction was halted. Vandals who destroyed the models and plans for the basilica added further issues for construction.

Since then, construction has gained momentum though, once again, was forced to halt in March 2022 due to the pandemic.

“Five generations have watched the progress of the basilica,” stated the Sagrada Familia website. “It is only poetically fitting that the fruition of this one-of-a-kind spectacle is now expected to be finished in 2026, which marks the centenary of Gaudi’s death.”

The basilica has long been considered one of Barcelona’s top attractions, but experts at experts at italki also named it the “most popular attraction” in all of Europe based on factors including social media data on TikTok and Instagram and Google search volume.

Sagrada Familia is impressive enough from the exterior, with three major views each representing a different portion of the life of Jesus. The church will eventually have 18 towers, though at present 18 of these impressive structures are complete. Intricate and detailed carvings are etched into the front of the building, with so much to see it can be hard to know where to look.

Once inside, the church becomes a vast cavernous building with awe-inspiring design details and stained glass windows flooding the space with a rainbow of colour.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that previous visitors have hailed it as “amazing”, “beautiful” and “not to be missed” in reviews on Tripadvisor.

Having visited in August 2023, one Tripadvisor reviewer wrote: “Not to be missed. This is without question the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen. You can look at all the photos you want but until you’ve seen it in person, you haven’t really seen it.”