If you’ve ever been to Barcelona, or have plans to travel to the Catalan capital in Spain, you’ll know the impressive Sagrada Familia Basilica is an absolute must-visit.
The famous cathedral is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world and attracts upwards of 4.7 million visitors a year.
Both worshippers and travellers alike flock to the famed church in the Eixample district, but tourist crowds have become an issue prompting authorities to put forward a new action plan.
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The famous Sagrada Familia attracts upwards of 4.7 million visitors a year. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
“The area around the Sagrada Familia was not designed for the intensive use it currently experiences,” officials said, in the action plan put together by the Barcelona Tourism Management (BTM).
As part of the plan, there will be 37 new measures to expand public space, regulate visitor flows and recover spaces for neighbourhood activities.
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And one of those measures will be an area dedicated to picture taking in a large plaza on the Placa Gaudi facing the front of the church, the New York Post reports.
Tourists often clog the city’s roads and pavements while trying to capture the perfect picture in front of Antoni Gaudi’s famously unfinished work. And crowds are only expected to get bigger as the building officially nears completion in 2026.
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The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona will be completed in 2026 (Photo by David Ramos / Getty Images)
The new square, an “anteroom to the temple”, will be located on Marina Street between Mallorca and Provença Streets, Gaudí Square and the Nativity Facade of the Sagrada Familia.
The idea is for holidaymakers to have a dedicated space to gather and take selfies without causing congestion on the roads or walkways used by residents.
Work on the project is expected to begin in September and take around eight and a half months to complete.
“A new design of the square would allow a [physical link] with Avinguda de Gaudí to encourage flows toward the Sant Pau Modernist complex,” the action plan says.
All the measures in the plan are estimated to cost €15.5m ($27.5m) and aim to dilute the impact of tourism by 2027.
Barcelona Spain has been dealing with high tourist numbers. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
It comes after a summer of conflict between locals and tourists last year.
In early July 2024, protesters marched through popular tourist areas in Barcelona spraying unsuspecting visitors with water pistols while chanting “tourists go home.
At the centre of the protests was the growing issue of rising rents and house prices, which has made home ownership almost impossible for some residents.
Tourists who visit the city for less than 12 hours typically cause extra crowding at the main attractions of Sagrada Familia cathedral, Las Ramblas pedestrian walkway in the Gothic Quarter and at Gaudi’s hillside Park Guëll, the city’s press office told CNN last year.