Gaudí’s Spain, Beyond Barcelona
The Sagrada Família's Jesus Tower is finished and the Gaudí centenary runs through 2026. The quieter sell is the three Gaudí buildings outside Catalonia.
The Sagrada Família finally has its crown. On 10 June 2026, exactly 100 years after Antoni Gaudí died, the basilica’s central Tower of Jesus Christ was inaugurated. It rises to 172.5 metres and makes the basilica the tallest building in Barcelona, according to Turespaña. That is the headline, and it means Barcelona’s Gaudí sites will be busier than ever. The smarter trip for travellers who have already done Barcelona, or who hate queues, is the Gaudí most people never see: three buildings in northern Spain, a cathedral in Mallorca and the town where he grew up.
Barcelona, briefly
The Sagrada Família drew nearly 5 million visitors in 2025, CNN reported, and the finished tower will push demand higher. It is not complete: interior work is expected to run to 2028, and the Glory Façade, intended as the main entrance, is still unbuilt. Book timed tickets well ahead on the basilica’s own site.
The centenary program, which Turespaña says spans more than 75 venues across Barcelona and Catalonia, keeps running into the autumn. Highlights still to come, according to The Local Spain:
- “Avinguda Gaudí, a Living Memory Between the Sagrada Família and the Hospital de Sant Pau,” an exhibition to 15 November.
- “A recer del Park Güell,” photographs of lesser-known Gaudí details inside the park, to 13 December.
- MNAC, the national art museum of Catalonia, expected to open a Gaudí exhibition this October with works from the city council’s storerooms.
- Casa Vicens, Gaudí’s first major house, reopening its smoking room with restored 1885 polychrome decoration in November.
Casa Batlló has added a contemporary art space, an immersive light show called “Beyond the Façade” and a video-mapping projection on its façade, Turespaña says.
The Gaudí Way: three buildings outside Catalonia
Gaudí built only three buildings outside Catalonia, according to Turespaña, and they link up into a road trip across Cantabria and Castilla y León that the board promotes as the Gaudí Way.
El Capricho, Comillas (Cantabria). Built between 1883 and 1885, El Capricho was one of Gaudí’s first commissions, a summer villa wrapped in sunflower tiles with music and nature woven through the decoration. Turespaña notes that it shares ideas with Casa Vicens, built at the same time. It opens all year and runs concerts and children’s workshops for the centenary. Next door is the neo-Gothic Sobrellano Palace; on the hill opposite is the old Pontifical University. Finish at the port with rabas, the local fried squid.
Read next · IndustryWestJet’s Calgary–Loreto Nonstop Returns, Twice Weekly in Winter2 min →Museo Casa Botines, León. Gaudí’s first residential building, finished at the end of the 19th century, mixes Gothic towers with modernist detail. Museo Casa Botines is now a museum of Gaudí and Spanish art, with works by Goya, Sorolla, Ramón Casas, Dalí and Chillida, and is staging guided tours, concerts and the exhibition “Gaudí and the modern city” for 2026. León adds a great Gothic cathedral, the Romanesque frescoes at San Isidoro and tapas in the Húmedo quarter. Stay at the Parador de León, the former Convento de San Marcos. León’s Modernist Fair runs each September.
Episcopal Palace, Astorga (León province). About 40 km west of León, this neo-Gothic palace dates from 1889 and is built of granite from El Bierzo, with a moat that nods to medieval castles. Inside are star-shaped capitals and stained glass. For the centenary, a Gaudí sculpture by local artist Amancio González will be unveiled in the gardens. Astorga’s Gothic cathedral stands next door, and the town is known for chocolate, with a museum that ends in a tasting, and the hearty cocido maragato.
Two more stops
- Reus and Riudoms (Catalonia). Turespaña recommends starting where Gaudí grew up, with the Gaudí Centre in Reus as the visitor hub. It is an easy add-on south of Barcelona.
- Palma Cathedral (Mallorca). Gaudí’s early 20th-century restoration reopened walled-up Gothic windows and added stained glass to filter the light. A centenary exhibition inside the cathedral explains his role.
Plan it
- Route: Comillas to León is a natural north-to-south drive; Astorga is a short hop from León. Allow three to four nights.
- Gateways: fly into Santander for Comillas, or Madrid for León by rail; Barcelona and Palma bracket the trip for travellers who want the big-name sites too.
- Timing: León’s Modernist Fair is in September. For Barcelona’s exhibitions, go before 15 November or 13 December, when the main shows close.
- Book ahead: timed Sagrada Família and Casa Batlló tickets sell out in busy periods.
Sources
- Turespaña, Gaudí Year 2026
- Turespaña, The Gaudí Way outside Catalonia
- Spain.info social newsroom, 29 May 2026
- The Local Spain, Gaudí Year programme
- CNN via CP24, Tower of Jesus Christ, 8 Jun 2026
Where to stay near León
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Alicia Loveday is Managing Editor at Not An Atlas, writing from Calgary, Alberta, amid a little creative chaos: a laptop, an iced coffee and about a hundred ideas she hasn't had time to bring to life yet. She became a mom young and spent her twenties raising two kids, so she was 30 before she saw the ocean for the first time, in Aruba. Gliding through that clear Caribbean water on a Seabob felt like freedom, and she's been making up for lost time ever since. She always takes the window seat (she waited 30 years for the view), never travels without the feather pillow she's had since childhood (they're a package deal), and sizes up a new place with a local cocktail and some serious people-watching. She covers fashion, culture, creativity and the people who shape the places we visit. Friends say creative, fearless and unapologetic. Her mum says stubborn, and she'd be right. Next stop: Japan.
