Spain: Barcelona, Sagrada Familia’s four Towers of the Evangelists lit up. Throughout the building, “clear relationship between architectural form and symbolism”

The four Towers of the Evangelists are now lit up. They were inaugurated and blessed during a solemn ceremony that took place in the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona yesterday, Sunday, 12 November. A statement issued by the Spanish Archdiocese also informs that the celebration was presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio to Spain and Andorra, Mgr. Bernardito Auza, and was attended by about 2,000 believers. The completed towers are now 13 out of a total of 18. “Throughout the Sagrada Familia building, there is a clear relationship between architectural form and symbolism”, the statement in Catalan reads. Indeed, “the four towers inaugurated this year show the world the importance of the Gospels”. It is a real “catechesis that points to the four cardinal points: St Luke oriented to the north, St Matthew to the south, St Mark to the west, and St John to the east”. Architect Gaudi has endowed each tower with the four symbols that the Christian tradition has attributed to the Evangelists: the eagle for John; the ox for Luke; the lion for Mark, and the winged man for Matthew. But we will have to wait until 2026 for the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus, which will be the tallest in the architectural complex (topped by a cross, it will be 170 meters high) and will be surrounded by the four Towers of the Evangelists. This is to represent the fact that the four Evangelists convey the same message from different points of view, and shape the figure of Jesus.
Sarah Numico