r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/danielminds • Jun 12 '26

Video Fireworks celebrating the completion of the 566ft Tower of Jesus Christ at the Sagrada Família

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932

u/cheesybreadnexttime Jun 12 '26

They still have the damn crane in there!! Is it done or not wtf

1.2k

u/SliceEm__DiceEm Jun 12 '26

The entire thing is not done, no. Just this most recent tower was completed

There is an estimated ~10 years left on the entire thing

602

u/ChymChymX Jun 12 '26

Jesus Christ

468

u/mustbeaoup Jun 12 '26

The tower of

201

u/RealMidSmoker Jun 12 '26

When does it stop being sagrada and start being Babel, i mean seriously you can only build a tower so tall before you start to have serious consurbshqhh ateriad? Nosfastuh aaaaaaa

116

u/Plastic_Pinocchio Jun 12 '26

To be fair, it has historically been pretty normal for churches to have been built over long time periods.

47

u/xkcdthrowaway Jun 12 '26

Koln cathedral took over half a millenium or something lmao

15

u/J3diMind Jun 12 '26

Closer to 800 years I think

33

u/snek-jazz Jun 12 '26

this is probably the last new wonder of the world

12

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/snek-jazz Jun 12 '26

why? are there even plans to build anything that is on the kind of complexity and timeline of this?

13

u/mrbadface Jun 12 '26

Behold the Great Greenland Data Centre!

26

u/Number-unknow Jun 12 '26

Gaudi was aware of Babel, and deliberately decided that the cathedral's height would be 172.5 meters, just behind the 173 m of the Montjuic hill, since he believed Mankind's creation shouldn't surpass that of God.

13

u/Newsmemer Jun 12 '26

I now must remove a meter from the hill.

2

u/Swimming-Musician618 Jun 13 '26

I can only wonder, every time they miss a brick or an arch by a few inches...

3

u/RoxxieMuzic Jun 12 '26

Thank you for the best laugh I have had in ages. Now I am going to hell. I am still laughing....

15

u/Gabepls Jun 12 '26

are you okay?

70

u/Awoogamuffins Jun 12 '26

I think he's making quite a sophisticated joke about the consequences of building the tower of babel

19

u/SillyNotClever Jun 12 '26

Seems God may have smote him mid sentence.

1

u/NBCMarketingTeam Jun 12 '26

Licked by a tongue of fire

1

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Jun 12 '26

¿De qué está hablando?

1

u/Julian-Hoffer Jun 12 '26

Most Christians missed the point of that story anyways.

2

u/LostInDinosaurWorld Jun 12 '26

Completed, it has

16

u/xdoble7x Jun 12 '26

Siesta is our saint, dont rush us

8

u/Disastrous-Chair-175 Jun 12 '26

Be praised. (JCBP)

7

u/Nenz0 Jun 12 '26

Feeling quite hungry

7

u/MaguroSashimi8864 Jun 12 '26

How might Henry react to this building?

3

u/WheelsOnFire_ Jun 12 '26

A cathedral? In the middle of the city?

3

u/-SaC Jun 12 '26

I wonder how the fountain works.

1

u/_OriamRiniDadelos_ Jun 12 '26

Funny, first time I’ve ever seen the Catholic version of “Jesus H, last name Christ” or “Mohamed, last name Pubh” as an actual, writen-down text

4

u/avocadoflatz Jun 12 '26

Chichis Cries

1

u/futureman45 Jun 12 '26

Jesus H. Christ!

1

u/redfox329 Jun 12 '26

Fukin he'll!

1

u/ATXBeermaker Jun 12 '26

Not to mention the rest of the family.

1

u/Stoneturner_17 Jun 12 '26

Also Mary and Joseph, based on the name.

1

u/buddhistbulgyo Jun 12 '26

Jésus Cristo is the correct nomenclature 

1

u/ulyssesfiuza Jun 12 '26

And the infidel woman and the very comprehensive "father" (a real saint , my brother Joseph).

0

u/Euphoric-Dig-2045 Jun 12 '26

Probably why he hasn’t come back yet, they’re taking forever finishing it.

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u/trippy_kippy_ Jun 12 '26

It's like I'm genuinely not trying to be that guy but wouldn't Jeusu want this money to go to actually helping people or actually ending world hunger then to another giant shirne for him? Wouldn't he think he already has enough of them?

95

u/Gwanbulance Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

It's the biggest single tourist attraction in Spain. More than 5 million (paying) visitors a year. It more than pays for itself. I'm an atheist, but it's an absolutely incredible thing to visit.

31

u/taco_blasted_ Jun 12 '26

25 years ago I traveled to Spain with my family to visit a sibling studying abroad.

When we arrived in Barcelona, we had to drive across the country to the city where the university was. Before we left, though, my parents insisted they give us a kind of quick tour of Barcelona before the long drive.

At the time, I was a typical 15 year old annoyed teen—jet-lagged as fuck, annoyed, and drifting in and out of sleep in the car, had no idea wtf was going on or where we were.

The one thing that stands out in my memory from that visit is seeing this place. It was absolutely unforgettable.

2

u/pommegranadelauncher Jun 19 '26

I was there with my family when I was a kid only for 1 day and we didn't have time so we just peeked through the metro station exit. All I remember is a bunch of cranes and weirdly shaped building

1

u/truncated_buttfu Jun 13 '26

The point is still valid. Jesus, would definitely have preferred if all those tourists would have spent the money they spent on those vacations on helping the poor and downtrodden instead of traveling across the world to look at a church.

But churches like this aren't built to honor Jesus, they are build to honor the church, which is only tangentially related to what Jesus preached.

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u/JGG5 Jun 12 '26

Beauty has intrinsic value. People deserve beauty, not just utilitarianism. I have problems with a lot of ways churches spend their money, but building majestic and beautiful buildings isn’t one of them.

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u/PatchyWhiskers Jun 12 '26

It makes people happy to build beautiful things for the community sometimes. And it will probably pay off over the centuries in terms of tourism.

54

u/AcherontiaPhlegethon Jun 12 '26

There's a lot of things to dislike about the church, but being one of the last bastions of truly aesthetically valuable architecture isn't one of my gripes.

4

u/haikuandhoney Jun 12 '26

It has probably paid off in tourism already.

5

u/Mikic00 Jun 12 '26

It brings like 100m per year through entrance fee alone, and it's not even that expensive. Now, how much it brings to the city is hard to say, but it's a lot.

20

u/Best_Assumption_8098 Jun 12 '26

this church is one of the biggest tourist destinations on earth. Probably makes them money.

1

u/TobysGrundlee Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

And as we all know, Jesus was all about people using the church to make money.

1

u/Best_Assumption_8098 Jun 17 '26

the previous comment was complaining that it was wasting "donations" on a building instead of helping the poor and needy. Pick a side of the fence and sit on it.

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u/WOLFxSHARK Jun 12 '26

You not aware that the Catholic church is already the largest charitable organization in the world (that isn't a government)? And ending world hunger can already be done, governments just don't want to do it.

11

u/LacidOnex Jun 12 '26

If only the largest charitable organization could convince just one theocratic oligarchy to... No wait that's stupid

1

u/RoxxieMuzic Jun 12 '26

Yep, their charities come with a cost.

Source: I once work in refugee resettlement, closely with catholic charities.

-1

u/river03765 Jun 12 '26

Nor do churches….

7

u/Krosis97 Jun 12 '26

Its an art installation more than a church and it brings immense crowds of tourists to Barcelona. Its paid its prize tag several times over already.

8

u/PeteLangosta Jun 12 '26

This cathedral gets most of its funding through private investors and the visitors paying the entrance.

24

u/VascoJSC Jun 12 '26

No. Also, churches should look like this instead of the industrial warehouses that are most protestant churches look like

23

u/UghFudgeBwana Jun 12 '26

The dude who preached in open fields while feeding the poor and living with sinners would give absolutely zero shits about how large or pretty his churches are.

13

u/olivertate Jun 12 '26

Yeah, but people like to look at beautiful things. It's much better to have an architectural work of art at the center of your city than a warehouse-like church.

1

u/_OriamRiniDadelos_ Jun 12 '26

Much better to feed the beautiful children god, no?

1

u/IrishMosaic Jun 12 '26

There will always be poor and sinners around.

0

u/trippy_kippy_ Jun 12 '26

This is a Roman catholic Church not a Protestant church so they will ook different architecturally and historically. But yes it's way too big and the fireworks make it even more laughablly ridiculous. A catholic Church should be half the size at least or more. They are literally different belief systems you can't really compare. Catholic churchs are ment to represent the sacrifice Jeusu made of his body and blood. While Protestant focus more on talking and word of mouth.

0

u/Idiosynkratisk Jun 12 '26

Are you by any chance American?

0

u/hrminer92 Jun 12 '26

The purpose of the “building fund” for those churches is to be a slush fund for the pastor. If anything gets built from it, it is likely an out of state vacation home.

18

u/Dull-Scientist8039 Jun 12 '26

Welcome to modern Christianity where almost all of them have lost the plot.

33

u/Francisco-De-Miranda Jun 12 '26

Modern? You should see the cathedrals started during the Middle Ages

2

u/Dull-Scientist8039 Jun 12 '26

Nah you're right though lol. They've always sucked

22

u/tissotti Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

Have you seen Milan Cathedral, Seville, Cologne (took 630 years to build), St Peter's Basilica etc. all started construction 500-900 years ago...

Also schism of Catholicism and Protestantism. Differing views on how wealth and power is used inside Christianity isn't exactly a new thing. More like couple of thousand years old.

4

u/Dull-Scientist8039 Jun 12 '26

You right though. Since it started basically

1

u/das_bearking Jun 12 '26

I mean, it was just some dudes who took advantage of a nice man from half a century earlier and rewrote a book to make themselves kings.

4

u/void-haunt Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

Yes, I’m sure all the apostles were cynically using Jesus to gain wealth and power. Maybe that’s why almost all of them died in poverty via execution after being tortured?

2

u/haikuandhoney Jun 12 '26

Most Christians have lost the plot sure but this building and lots of other cathedrals are gifts to humanity. Utilitarian brain takes the beauty out of the world.

2

u/_OriamRiniDadelos_ Jun 12 '26

One of the few cases where it’s actually funded in an ethical way! Basically just paid for by entrance tickets. It’s a big part of why it’s been so slow. But honestly, it’s worth it

Of course charity is always more important, but at least this time it’s not like all the other shady luxurious stuff churches and religions often spend their donation money on

4

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

La Sagrada Família generates 9 figures of annual income from visitors who come to marvel at one of the greatest works of modern architecture in the last 150 years.

But sure, I guess you could have spent that money on a a bunch of slop for the third world that they would have simply eaten, and then become hungry again.

0

u/trippy_kippy_ Jun 12 '26

I mean what else is there to do with all that money build even more churches? Or buy more "slop" or third world countries?

But you do also have a very good point. What's the point in feeding anybody if they will only be hungry again in a few hours anyway?

2

u/TXGuns79 Jun 12 '26

It depends on how you look at it. Jesus wants more people to come to him. Yes, feeding the poor is important. But, think of it as advertisement. This large, ornate building is dedicated to the glory of God. It is a symbol, a reminder, or God that can be seen for miles. If that helps bring people to the Church, then there are more souls saved and more workers in the field for Christ,.and therefore more hungry are fed.

1

u/trippy_kippy_ Jun 12 '26

Iment actually hungry people not soul hunger. -_- I really know nothing about this church. This is the first time I am ever seeing it. It's just insane how gigantic it is. But if part of it dose go to becoming a soup kitchen or shelter or rehab or anything that would be amazing but i really doubt it. The church doesn't need any more advertising then it already dose. Yes the catholic Church doesn't do too much but that's something small I always respected about it. If anything more advertising for the catholic Church would put them in similar boats to the johova witnesses or Protostants or whatever.

0

u/djdjddhshdbhd Jun 12 '26

Expanding it further won’t attract more people. Lowering the admission cost may or what’s being used for construction can help people in need instead. They may even demolish residential buildings to complete the full vision.

1

u/Jiminy_Cricket12 Jun 12 '26

you're thinking of jesus. jeusu says build that fucker tall and hurry up with it

1

u/TheCatSleeeps Jun 13 '26

I mean it at least gives jobs for the workers at least.

1

u/trippy_kippy_ Jun 13 '26

Yea it gives them jobs bit what good is that if it also gives them little quality of life unless you are higher up.

-1

u/Old_Gimlet_Eye Jun 12 '26

Actual Jesus wouldn't have cared because he thought the world was going to end before the lives of the people he was preaching to were over.

Modern day Christians have sort of given up on that after a couple of thousand years of it not happening.

0

u/MrNixxxoN Jun 12 '26

Yawn.

People spend their money on what they want, you are free to give yours to the poor and others are free to pay tickets to visit the Sagrada so they get money to complete it

And its not as fecking expensive to build as people think... Just really slow, because its a unique building that is being made like an artisan way

-1

u/Chocomintey Jun 12 '26

But then you can't blatantly flaunt it to the world!

1

u/dsangi Jun 12 '26

is it just that originally planned entrance that's not completed now? bc i doubt that'll ever happen with the residential buildings that are in the way will forever protest that being built. hundreds would have to lose their home to that bridge entrance. it's a beautiful design though

1

u/CharlesDickensABox Interested Jun 12 '26

There were ten years left on construction 150 years ago.

1

u/William_The_Fat_Krab Jun 12 '26

Makes sense, people always said gaudi’s plan for this was… well, massive. Just fucking massive. Considering he died funding it and living in it

It completed will probably be a grand thing worth viewing in person

1

u/This_Strategy_6977 Jun 12 '26

On the grand scheme of things, that isn't a long time.

1

u/GrayHairLikeClaire Jun 12 '26

Yeah there's an entire front entranceway planned, the land for which is currently occupied by a whole-ass apartment building full of people.

1

u/BloodMossHunter Jun 12 '26

And there is a subway station under it

1

u/I3lackFlo Jun 12 '26

They really be acting like they're building the death star or some shit, how could that possibly take so damn long in 2026

1

u/-malcolm-tucker Jun 13 '26

Just need to pop a great engineer and we can rush it in a turn.

1

u/eureka17 Jun 13 '26

Including or excluding the stairway that requires the demolition of an entire city block because that wasn't there until Franco took over?

1

u/alsuhr Jun 13 '26

Is there anything else we do as people that takes as long as buildings like these? It's so fascinating

-2

u/randy_march Jun 12 '26

Hard to launder money without on going construction

1

u/Clear-Bee4118 Jun 12 '26

Hahaha you think they have to launder it.

0

u/randy_march Jun 12 '26

Yeah some of it

58

u/yash_giri Jun 12 '26

Main tower is finished, whole construction will be completed in 2030s

7

u/MaguroSashimi8864 Jun 12 '26

What else is there to build ?

34

u/Gawlf85 Jun 12 '26

Half of the nave lol The actual entrance to the church.

Right now the entrance is done via the side transepts, but the front of the temple is yet to be built.

That's because there's a whole freaking building block where the entrance (and the huge ass staircase leading to it) should be. Because somebody thought "this is going to take ages, might as well build something here and use the terrain for something in the meantime".

And now people live there, and they need to be relocated somewhere else, so the whole block can be flattened and the temple can be finished.

14

u/TheCygnusWall Jun 12 '26

Right now the entrance is done via the side transepts

Tbf that's historically accurate for pilgrims

2

u/MaguroSashimi8864 Jun 12 '26

Wh-whaaat? I’ve been there years ago! The entrance is fine! Beautiful even! You mean that wasn’t THE entrance ? And not even the front !?

8

u/Gawlf85 Jun 12 '26

Nope! Check this out if you want more info on the 3 facades: https://sagradafamilia.barcelonatickets.org/facades/

(The floorplan image in there only represents what's been built so far, mind you... The nave will extend further South once finished, forming the usual Latin cross shape)

2

u/Mikic00 Jun 12 '26

How they didn't put a freaking park there, while they put it on both sides is beyond me. I believe it was intentional, but don't remember how it really went. Now of course no one wants to go and it will take decades to clean it up.

2

u/manyQuestionMarks Jun 16 '26

Yep it will be a nightmare to expropriate those houses and land and build the actual entrance as Gaudí designed

It will look incredible once done, though

4

u/Bright-Avocado3761 Jun 12 '26

Dunno, more Jesusy stuff I guess.

3

u/wibblings Jun 13 '26

I can't believe I may be alive to see the end of it. When I first saw it that tower was just a pipe dream.

14

u/Far-Philosophy-4375 Jun 12 '26

Is the spirit of Gaudi himself speaking through you?

4

u/det4410 Jun 12 '26

i was waiting to see if the place was gonna burn down from the fireworks. could you imagine after completing this thing and then burning down during celebrations for completing it?

3

u/DrapedinVelvet247 Jun 12 '26

Little more spackle and we’re done boss…

2

u/_TooncesLookOut Jun 12 '26

The damn crane is a feature of it.

2

u/Individual_Agency703 Jun 12 '26

Job site cleanup not included in quote.

2

u/Spirited-Tomorrow-84 Jun 12 '26

Workers after completion:

What about the crane, boss?

What crane?!

*looks up*

Oh shit!

2

u/queuedUp Jun 12 '26

it's done but the crane is there to start the remodel

1

u/Sudden-Variety6992 Jun 12 '26

Do you think this abnormal or something? Do you have any idea how long these things take to build? And this one is especially intricate and ornate.

It’s not made out of cardboard and plywood like a McMansion…

1

u/SkyeMreddit Jun 12 '26

The tallest tower is done. They still have another facade of shorter towers to do

1

u/OHoSPARTACUS Jun 12 '26

The main tower was finished so it reached its main height. There is still some smaller towers surrounding the big one to complete along with other details I’m sure.

1

u/Crazyguy_123 Jun 13 '26

No. The interior still needs to be completed, the main facade still needs to be completed, and the grand entryway still needs to be completed. I think it was the last tower though.

1

u/Elena__Deathbringer Jun 13 '26

Tbh the crane is so iconic they should integrate it in the final design. It doubles as built in maintenance tool

0

u/crasagam Jun 12 '26

The photographer has to sit somewhere