After some 140 years, five central towers of Barcelona’s famous Sagrada Familia have finally been completed.

When the sixth and final central tower is finished – expected in 2026 – the construction of the church, which began in 1882, will be complete.

The design of the church was pioneered by the famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, who decided that the monumental structure would have 18 huge, spindle-shaped towers, each symbolizing a different biblical figure – the 12 apostles, the four evangelists, the Virgin Mary and Jesus .

Last Wednesday, the last sculpture was placed in the tower of St. Matthew the Evangelist.

“The four towers of the Evangelists are finished! We will be celebrating this building milestone soon!” the church announced in a Facebook post last Friday.

The inauguration will take place in the cathedral on November 12, when the four evangelical towers will be illuminated and will remain lit until Christmas.

The four evangelical towers are 135 meters high.

When Gaudí died in 1926, it is estimated that only 10-15% of the work had been built, including a transept, a crypt and part of the arch wall.

Construction of the Sagrada Familia was interrupted in the late 1930s by the Spanish Civil War, when most of Gaudi’s plans and models – whose tomb is under the cathedral – were destroyed.

Current designs are based on salvaged and reconstructed materials, as well as redesigned adaptations of the original.

In 1984, the building was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI for religious worship in 2010.