{"id":70872,"date":"2026-06-17T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=70872"},"modified":"2026-06-16T11:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T09:16:21","slug":"3d-printing-sagrada-familia-17062026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/3d-printing-sagrada-familia-17062026\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hidden Role of 3D Printing in the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia\u2019s Tower of Jesus Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 172.5 meters, the Tower of Jesus Christ makes the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia the tallest Catholic church in the world. Pope Leo XIV blessed it on June 10, 2026, 144 years after the cornerstone was laid. At the top of the tower stands a cross measuring 17 meters tall, 13 meters wide, and weighing more than 12 tons. It is clad in over 13,000 pieces of glazed white ceramic. Though it may not be immediately obvious, <\/span><\/span>3D printing<\/span><\/span><\/a> played a role in its production.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

How 3D Printing Helped Build the Sagrada Familia Cross<\/h2>\n

One of the most common misconceptions about digital manufacturing in historic projects is that technology replaces craftsmanship. The Sagrada Fam\u00edlia project demonstrates the opposite. Aldo Sollazo, CEO of LAM\u00c1QUINA, the digital manufacturing company that worked on the project alongside Cer\u00e1mica Cumella, told 3Dnatives that the ceramic<\/a> pieces covering the cross were not 3D printed. Instead, 3D printing was used to create the molds needed to produce them.<\/p>\n

“3D printing was used in a crucial intermediate stage of the process: producing the molds that supported the pieces during firing,” Sollazo explains. These molds were made from a ceramic material compatible with the final pieces. “This allowed us to properly monitor the behavior of the assembly during the thermal process and ensure that each element held its intended geometry before final installation.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>

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Printing of the molds (left); Tower of Jesus Christ (right). (Photo credit: LAM\u00c1QUINA \u2013 Pilar Jim\u00e9nez).<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Each piece of the cross has a different geometry, and each requires a specific support to control potential warping during firing. “Rather than a mass-production system, this was a highly controlled manufacturing process in which each mold served as a precise interface between design, material, and construction,” he adds.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Cer\u00e1mica Cumella is the workshop responsible for cladding the entire tower, including the cross. They produced more than 50,000 hand-glazed pieces following a coding system based on shape, color, and position. For the exterior of the cross alone, they designed nearly 500 unique shapes in glass and glazed white ceramic. Achieving the right shade of white was also a challenge. They tested nearly 50 shades before settling on the 15 that best capture and reflect sunlight. For the 3D-printed molds, the workshop turned to LAM\u00c1QUINA.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For Sollazo, working alongside Cumella was both demanding and meaningful: “Being able to contribute our technology to a project of this significance shows that 3D printing can be rigorously integrated into highly complex construction processes, addressing structural, material, and production demands at the highest level.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Support molds used for ceramic firing (Photo credit: LAM\u00c1QUINA \u2013 Pilar Jim\u00e9nez).<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

From Gaud\u00ed’s Plaster Models to the Cross’s Molds<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

The use of 3D printing at the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia did not begin with this cross. The Construction Board of the Expiatory Temple adopted the technology in 2001 to produce prototypes of the building’s most complex components, replacing handmade plaster models. Specifically, they chose the ZPrinter 650 from 3D Systems, a <\/span><\/span>binder jetting<\/span><\/span><\/a> printer that produced white plaster parts similar to those Gaud\u00ed himself worked with. The printer allowed them to create parts in a matter of hours and modify them easily, speeding up decision-making.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The need to think in three dimensions was not new. Gaud\u00ed already built models, and they served as the reference for decades. Sadly, most were lost in the 1936 fire. 3D printing offered a way to reconstruct what had been lost and continue building true to the original design.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Twenty-five years later, LAM\u00c1QUINA brought 3D printing back to the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia. For Sollazo, the technology “does not replace traditional processes, but expands their possibilities.” For this project, 3D printing remained in the molds, but it is now part of a story that has been under construction for 144 years.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Tower of Jesus Christ was completed in 2026, marking the centenary of Gaud\u00ed’s death (Photo credit: Sagrada Fam\u00edlia).<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

What do you think about the use of 3D printing in the construction of the Sagrada Familia? Let us know in a comment below or on our <\/span><\/span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u00a0or\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u00a0pages! Plus, don’t forget to sign up for our free weekly\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>newsletter<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u00a0to get the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox. You can also find all our videos on our\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>YouTube<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u00a0channel.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

*Cover Photo Credits: 3Dnatives\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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At 172.5 meters, the Tower of Jesus Christ makes the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia the tallest Catholic church in the world. Pope Leo XIV blessed it on June 10, 2026, 144 years after the cornerstone was laid. At the top of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6123,"featured_media":70873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70872"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70885,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70872\/revisions\/70885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}