La Sagrada Familia will open its doors for free to 15,000 lucky visitors

The iconic basilica will feature Open Days during the La Mercè festival, 23-25 September

The visitor’s office of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is offering 15,000 free tickets to lucky visitors. Those interested to discover the interior of the iconic art and religious monument should best sign up for the raffle. Registration is open online until 19 September at 10:00.

Winners will be given four tickets each to the Sagrada Família's 2022 Open Days on 23, 24, and 25 September coinciding with the Catalan capital's patron saint festivities – La Mercè. 

People can sign up to win tickets for different time slots each of the three days: from 4 pm to 6 pm and 6 pm to 8 pm on Friday and Saturday, or from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm and 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm on Sunday.

You can see two of the four future crowning sculptures

La Sagrada Familia is probably Barcelona’s best-known landmark, considered a masterpiece of Art Nouveau and Catalan Modernism. It is also famously known for being a living and evolving monument, whose construction has been going on for almost a hundred years after the death of its creator, Antoni Gaudí.

And it is not just the cranes towering over the structure that remind you about this ongoing process. Two of the sculptures, which will crown the four Evangelists towers when they are completed are now ready and can be seen inside.

As part of the set of central towers, the four towers of the Evangelists will surround the tower of Jesus and will be 135 meters high when completed. To identify which evangelist each tower represents, sculptures with the figure of the tetramorph (figures that Christian iconography, art and architecture have used for centuries to represent the four evangelists of the Bible).

That means that Mark's tower will be crowned with the sculpture of a winged lion, a symbol of strength, courage and royalty. Luke's tower will be crowned with the sculpture of a winged bull, a calm and humble animal. The sculptures for the John and Mathew towers (represented by an eagle and a man respectively) are not yet ready.

The Sagrada Família is one of Barcelona's most popular tourist hotspots, attracting some 4.5 million visitors annually before the pandemic. Ticket prices normally start from 26 euros, but now there’s a unique chance to visit the marvellous temple for free.