A huge luminous star has been inaugurated on the second highest tower of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

In front of thousands of people on the streets around the church, the Cardinal and Archbishop of Barcelona, ​​Joan Josep Omella, gave the blessing to the "Star of Bethlehem" on Wednesday evening after a Holy Mass.

The bright light inside the twelve-pointed star made of steel and glass, which weighs five and a half tons and measures 7.5 meters from point to point, was lit shortly before 8 p.m. at a height of 138 meters.

Antoni Gaudí was following the ceremony "certainly deeply moved from heaven," said Cardinal Omella at the inauguration.

The Catalan architect, run over by a tram in 1926, designed the Roman Catholic basilica.

The construction that began in 1882 has not yet been completed.

According to recent estimates, the basilica will not be finished before 2030.

The star on the tower, which costs around 1.5 million euros and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is intended to catch and reflect sunlight during the day.

In the evening, spotlights will illuminate the colossus made of steel and glass from the inside - and thus “change the Barcelona skyline forever and ever” and contribute to ending “the great darkness of the pandemic,” as Omella explained.

And not only the star will shine.

The entire Marienturm, which, unlike the bell towers, is hollow on the inside, should shine brightly every evening with its almost 800 windows.

A huge festival of lights during the pre-Christmas Advent season.

Marienturm completed after 140 years

The star changes the skyline of the Spanish Mediterranean metropolis.

Especially in the evening you will see it shining from afar over Barcelona.

Many passers-by who witnessed the coronation of the Marienturm were perhaps not even aware of what a historical moment they were allowed to attend.

It took 140 years until the second largest tower was finally completed.

And after all, 44 years have passed since the completion of the apostle towers.

When Gaudi took over the building in 1883, a year after the foundation stone was laid, and overturned the designs of the founding architect Francesc de Paula del Villar, Germany had only been an empire for a few years. While the basilica was being built in Barcelona, ​​Otto von Bismarck followed in Germany, the First World War, Weimar Republic, Third Reich, Second World War, the division of Germany, the Cold War, GDR, the fall of the Berlin Wall, reunification and the 21st century - and the Sagrada Familia is still not finished.

Gaudi himself worked on it for 43 years, but was only able to realize a tenth of the house of God: the impressive “birth facade” with its four towers, of which only one was completely finished;

the crypt, the wall of the apse and the first sections of the cloister.

After Gaudi was run over by a tram in 1926 and fatally injured, construction work was slow.

Most of Gaudi's construction plans and plaster models also went up in flames when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936.

Later, it was various financial crises and, more recently, the economic consequences of the corona pandemic that repeatedly slowed down the construction, which was financed exclusively with donations.

At 172.50 meters, the Jesusturm is to become the highest church tower in the world

“Actually, we wanted to inaugurate the tallest tower, the Jesus Tower, in 2026 on the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.

But we definitely can't do that anymore, ”said the current chief architect Jordi Fauli of the Catholic News Agency (KNA).

At 172.50 meters, the Jesus Tower will not only be the tallest tower in the Sagrada Familia, but also the tallest church tower in the world.

But maybe it is not bad at all if the 2010 Pope Benedict XVI.

The church, which has been elevated to the status of a basilica minor, is not ready quite so quickly.

Because in addition to its organic, almost surreal architecture, it is precisely the status of “incomplete” that makes the building so charming.

The Sagrada Familia is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating churches in the world.

Nature, and above all the Bible, were Gaudi's greatest sources of inspiration.

A theological meaning is carved into every tower, every chapel and every facade, explains chief architect Jordi Fauli.

The temple of Gaudi, whose beatification process has been running since 2000, is a "sermon carved in stone," they say.

And from Wednesday the new “Star of Bethlehem” will shine above her.