Barcelona's Basílica de la Sagrada Família, with its towering, twirling spires, has long defined the Spanish city's skyline. Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan architect whose characteristic designs appear in gardens, sculptures and other architecture across Barcelona, began work on the enormous landmark in 1883.
Visitors to the basilica in the 21st century have seen it loom over urban Barcelona's characteristic square apartment blocks. In December 2025, however, an image circulated online that showed a very different view of the landmark.
According to one X user, a sepia-toned image showed the early days of the basilica in 1906, when the structure was surrounded by rubble, earth and livestock. The user who posted the picture wrote (archived), "Barcelona, 1906. The Sagrada Família basilica in the background, 24 years into its construction."
That same image, claiming to show Sagrada Família in 1906, also circulated on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived) dating back to at least 2021. Some versions were black-and-white, while others appeared colorized.
The image appeared to be an authentic photo, meaning not created or edited using artificial intelligence. According to a 2004 doctoral thesis on the work of César Comas Llabería, a physician who opened the first X-ray clinic in Spain and reportedly took the photo in question, it showed Sagrada Família around 1905, 23 years after construction began.
Francesca Portolés Brasó, the author of the thesis that featured Llabería's photograph, wrote that she came across the photo in a collection of the doctor's work that his family had preserved after his death.
We reached out to Brasó to ask for more information about the photo and whether Llabería's family still held the collection of his work. We also reached out to the foundation that builds and restores Sagrada Família to ask for information about the photo and whether it authentically depicted the basilica at that time. We await replies to our queries.
Because we coud not reach Brasó or see the original photo for ourselves, we have left this claim unrated. We'll update this story if we receive further information.
Brasó took special note of the photograph while combing through the collection, writing (Page 66):
It was impossible not to stop and contemplate through the stereoscopic viewer the Sagrada Familia under construction, with a group of black goats in the foreground, or the image of César Comas staring at us inside his laboratory, with a backdrop full of glass jars, to give just two examples.
She also noted in the thesis that she intended to publish Llabería's work as an archive called "Arxiu Dr. Comas." ("Arxiu" is Catalan for "archive.")
We could not find an online version of "Arxiu Dr. Comas" at the time of this writing.
Sagrada Família was originally designed by the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar in 1882. Del Villar envisioned a basilica in the style of the time, incorporating neo-Gothic traits. Gaudí took over the project in 1883 and took it in a very different direction, using the style known as Catalan Modernism. Gaudí would continue work on the basilica until his death in 1926 and, 100 years later, his masterpiece finally neared completion.
DeepL.com provided translations from Spanish into English.
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