Thread by @TIME

TIME’s new international cover: The race to complete one of the world’s longest-running construction projects mag.time.com/w5NdltZ

More than 130 years after the first stone was laid — and with the proper building permits finally in place — the end is in sight for the Sagrada Familia mag.time.com/w5NdltZ

Originally designed by Antoni Gaudí, the famously unfinished church is now on schedule to be completed in 2026, 100 years after the death of its architect mag.time.com/w5NdltZ

But making the deadline will mean overcoming technical complications, theological doubts and several blocks’ worth of outraged residents mag.time.com/w5NdltZ

Perhaps the greatest test, however, will be determining its visionary creator’s intentions.

“Gaudí left us the path,” says Jordi Faulí, the head architect. “Sometimes, though, we’ve had to work hard to find it” mag.time.com/w5NdltZ

Sustainability is key in modern day design, but Gaudí was ahead of his time in the methods he used to construct the temple, and his successors are following in his footsteps mag.time.com/w5NdltZ

Every part of the Sagrada Familia has meaning, but Gaudí’s greatest inspiration in designing the temple came from nature mag.time.com/w5NdltZ

More than two dozen architects are working on the project, and 200 workers in total are involved in construction. Watch the team working to complete the Sagrada Familia by 2026 mag.time.com/w5NdltZ

One day in the near future, the final panel will be lifted into place and the Jesus tower topped with a five-pointed illuminated star.

“Somehow, Sagrada Familia lifts everyone so that they bring their best to it. It’s transcendent” mag.time.com/w5NdltZ

Go inside the empty temple on an early morning visit in this drone tour, before the Sagrada Familia opens to the public mag.time.com/w5NdltZ