Published on
17/06/2026 - 14:00 GMT+2
For Antoni Gaudí, completing the Sagrada Familia was always a matter of time, not of imagination. He knew exactly what the six central towers should look like. What he did not know was that, more than a century later, technology would prove him right.
The towers have now been completed, just in time for the centenary of the architect’s death. But behind this visual milestone there is a main player no one would expect in a cathedral of such scale: an adhesive. Specifically, Loctite EA 9497 from Henkel (source in Spanish), the product that has made it possible for stone and steel to behave as a single material.
The challenge was immense. The towers have been built using a modular system of prestressed stone panels, 826 in total, incorporating more than 2,100 stone elements bonded to metal structures. Each panel requires around 30 kilograms of adhesive. In all, 24 tonnes applied in liquid form, able to fill every cavity and secure the joint before beginning a curing process of around 24 hours.
