高迪知道自己看不到圣家堂完工。他去世一百年后的今年，它封顶了，成为全世界最高的教堂。

In Barcelona, in Spain, there is a very famous church.

It is called the Sagrada Família.

This year, it was finally finished.

From the start of building to today: one hundred and forty-four years in all.

Here is why it took so long.

The man who made this church was called Gaudí.

He was an architect.

In 1883 he took it over. He was thirty-one that year.

He worked on it for forty-three years.

For the last twelve years he dropped everything else and worked only on this one church.

He later moved in and lived at the church itself.

There is one thing you need to know first.

Gaudí understood perfectly well: this church, he would not see in his lifetime.

It was too big. One person cannot finish it.

People said he was too slow.

He said a line that later became famous: my client is not in a hurry.

The client he meant is the one above.

In June 1926, Gaudí went out for a walk.

A tram came along and hit him.

He was dressed shabbily that day, and had nothing on him.

So the people on the street did not know him, and took him for a man with no home.

The cabs would not take him; in the end he was taken to a hospital for the poor.

Only the next day did somebody recognise him: this is Gaudí.

Three days later, he was gone.

The church, of course, was not finished.

But afterwards, other people carried on.

One year, another year, another year.

This February, the last piece of the cross was fitted to the highest tower.

That tower is one hundred and seventy-two and a half metres.

It is now the tallest church in the world.

Why one hundred and seventy-two and a half, and not a little higher?

Because the hill beside it is one hundred and seventy-seven metres.

Gaudí said: what people make must not be higher than what God made.

So he kept the tower below the hill.

On the tenth of June this year, the Pope came.

That day was exactly one hundred years after Gaudí died.

Think about it: something you cannot finish in your lifetime — would you still do it?