Aged 88, Pope Francis died on 21st April, 2025, Easter Monday, after suffering a cerebral stroke and subsequent heart failure. On Wednesday morning, 23rd April, his body was taken in a procession led by cardinals from his former residence, the Chapel of Santa Marta, to St Peter's Basilica, where he will remain in an open coffin until Friday. The Pope's funeral will be held outdoors, in front of St Peter's Basilica, on Saturday, 26 April. Breaking from tradition – which became quite the norm for this progressive pontiff during his 12-year papacy – he will be buried at Rome's Basilica of St Mary Major where he visited to pray less than 24 hours after he became Pope. Most recent Popes were buried in Vatican City.
Before his passing on 21st April, 2025, one of Pope Francis’ final ecclesiastical acts was an apt one: advancing Antoni Gaudí, the visionary behind Barcelona’s Sagrada Família who has long been nicknamed “God’s architect”, one step closer to sainthood. A few days earlier the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had recognised Gaudí’s “heroic virtues” during what would be the 88-year-old pontiff’s first official appointment following weeks battling life-threatening pneumonia.
How does someone become a saint?
It is a fitting final blessing for an architect whose religious imagery is masterfully woven through soaring spires and colourful ceramics. But architectural brilliance alone can’t earn Gaudí a halo. For those unfamiliar with the canonisation process, it involves four stages: being named Servant of God, then Venerable, followed by Beatification, and finally Sainthood – each requiring increasingly stringent evidence of virtue and divine intervention.
In most cases when an individual is recommended to become a saint recognised by The Vatican, a wait of five years after their passing is applied to allow objective discourse and reflection on the candidate's life and work. It is after this period that the process of being named a Servant of God starts.
On March 15th, 2025, it was announced that The Vatican had declared the Catalan architect “venerable”. It's timing, just days before the Pope Francis’s death, seems rather fitting for a designer whose own monk-like devotion carried him in his final years. Gaudí embraced spiritual minimalism with gusto, giving away possessions, fasting regularly, and prayer-marathoning daily. Living in what was basically a glorified closet near his unfinished masterpiece, he attended Mass daily in the Sagrada Família crypt, treating the basilica less like a job and more like a divine assignment. Talk about racking up saint-points in the celestial ledger. Now, according to Vatican rules, he needs evidence of two certified miracles before reaching beatification and potential sainthood (a process that could outlast most of the current Cardinals).
The 7 Most Beautiful Buildings Designed by Antonio Gaudí
Luckily, Gaudí has a couple of those under his belt and on record: supporters have tracked down a student who says Gaudí helped her pass her exams, and a woman who claims he cured her kidney stone. Whether divine intervention or devoted imagination, the Vatican will ultimately decide. What is indisputably miraculous, however, are the seven celestial creations left behind by Barcelona’s most divinely inspired designer. Here are 7 of them, which we think are worthy of sainthood alone.
The greatest design stories from AD Middle East, delivered to your inbox
Sagrada Família (1882–present)
The Sagrada Família represents the architect’s most profound spiritual statement – a Bible written in stone and light that attracts floods of tourists from around the world daily. Consider it an entryway; the perfect introduction to Gaudí’s style that feels at once ancient and futuristic. Construction began in 1882 and more than 140 years later, it remains the largest unfinished Roman Catholic church in the world, despite Gaudí devoting the last 12 years of his life to the project. The structure’s forest-like interior columns branch organically toward the ceiling while towers soar heavenward, making for a mystical experience for devout Catholics and atheists alike. Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the building in 2010, when he praised “the genius of Antoni Gaudí in transforming this church into a praise to God made of stone.” Gaudí, when asked about the extraordinarily lengthy construction timeline, famously quipped: “My client is not in a hurry.”
Casa Batlló (1904–1906)
This phantasmagorical residence on Barcelona’s fashionable Passeig de Gràcia transforms a conventional building into a dreamscape of curves and colours. The undulating façade covered in shimmering ceramic discs evokes a dragon’s scales (many interpret the building as representing Saint George slaying the dragon, with the cross-topped turret as the saint’s lance and the roof tiles as the beast’s back). Not a single straight line exists inside; even doorframes and windows curve organically. The building’s nickname “House of Bones” speaks to its skeletal, organic aesthetic that makes concrete and stone appear almost fluid. In 2005, Casa Batlló was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site and has since been enhanced with new spaces designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and digital artist Refik Anadol, adding 2,000 m² to the renovated site.
Park Güell (1900–1914)
Originally conceived as an exclusive residential development for Barcelona’s elite (which ultimately failed commercially), this fantastical park features Gaudí’s signature serpentine benches decorated with colourful mosaic fragments known as “trencadís.” The site’s combination of spiritual symbolism and organic architecture creates a space that feels both holy and playful, a park in every sense of the word, even with its religious undertones. Visitors are welcomed via two whimsical gatehouses reminiscent of gingerbread structures, while a multi-coloured salamander, one of the architect’s most photographed creations, guards a monumental stairway. The park’s columns mimic palm trees, and its viaducts blend with the hillside, creating what Gaudí called “the garden of paradise.”
Casa Milà (La Pedrera) (1906–1912)
Casa Milà is often referred to as “The Stone Quarry” for its rippling limestone façade, shaped to look like it’s been carved by centuries of wind and water. At the time of its construction, its structure was nothing short of radical: no load-bearing walls, just a self-supporting stone shell and reinforced concrete columns that allowed for entirely flexible interiors. Up on the roof, surrealist chimneys rise like abstract sculptures or sentinels in armour, lending the space a spiritual air as they watch over Barcelona. Inside, light wells and open courtyards usher in natural ventilation and daylight, remarkably forward-thinking for the early 1900s when concepts like sustainability and passive design were far from mainstream architectural discourse (but, like nature were always present for those who seek them).
The greatest design stories from AD Middle East, delivered to your inbox
Colònia Güell Crypt (1898–1914)
Perhaps Gaudí’s most experimental structure, this unfinished church for a workers’ colony outside Barcelona served as the testing ground for the structural innovations later used in the Sagrada Família. In this modest chapel, Antonio Gaudí let go of ornament and embraced pure structure, gravity, geometry, and nature in quiet dialogue. Using hanging chain models to determine the optimal shape for load-bearing arches, he created a space where leaning columns branch like trees to support a remarkable vaulted ceiling. Only the crypt portion was completed (around 20% of the planned design), yet this fragment is considered by many architects to be his most innovative work – less a ruin than a manifesto, strangely complete in its incompleteness.
El Capricho (Villa Quijano) (1883–1885)
Located in Comillas, Cantabria, this summer villa represents one of Antonio Gaudí’s rare works outside Catalonia. Commissioned by wealthy businessman Máximo Díaz de Quijano (who tragically died before seeing it completed), El Capricho showcases the young architect’s experimental style through its striking ceramic sunflower motifs and distinctive minaret-like tower. The building’s name, meaning “whim” or “caprice,” describes its playful combination of Neo-Mudéjar and Oriental influences with the emerging Modernisme style. Its location near the Bay of Biscay allowed Gaudí to explore how his architecture could harmonise with a different landscape than his familiar Barcelona, though his signature integration of natural motifs remains evident in the plant-inspired ironwork and floral ceramic tiles that adorn the façade.
Episcopal Palace of Astorga (1889–1913)
Finally on our list of the most beautiful buildings by Antonio Gaudí is the Episcopal Palace of Astorga, rising dramatically against the rugged backdrop of León province in northwestern Spain. Commissioned after the previous bishop’s residence was lost to fire, the neo-Gothic structure evokes a fairytale castle with its granite façade, cylindrical towers, and pointed arches, yet its details are unmistakably Gaudí. Designed as a residence for the spiritual leadership of Astorga, the project was abandoned by the architect in 1893 after disagreements with church authorities, though his original vision was largely preserved by those who followed. The palace is a rare Gaudí landmark far from his native Catalonia, and carries a quiet spiritual weight, set along the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. How fitting that a man on the path to sainthood created a masterpiece on the path that millions have walked seeking spiritual transcendence.
The greatest design stories from AD Middle East, delivered to your inbox
