After more than 130 years, a church tower in Ulm will lose its title as the world’s tallest to the Sagrada Família church in Barcelona – thanks to a company near Ulm that constructed a 10-metre addition to the Spanish church.
The Ulm Münster, as the Lutheran church in south-western Germany is known, has a 162-metre-high tower, but the Barcelona church will top it by 10 metres via the addition next summer of a walkable glass cross constructed some 36 kilometres away from the Ulm church.
“We take it with a certain wink and humour,” said Jürgen Wax, the chief executive of Josef Gartner GmbH, which is in the Bavarian town of Gundelfingen an der Donau. No one from Ulm, he stated, has complained about it yet.
Specialized construction company
The facade specialist in the town of 8,000 inhabitants is known for contributing to exceptional buildings like the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the UFO-like Apple headquarters in San Francisco.
Globally, the company, founded in 1868, employs around 850 people. Since 2001, it has been part of the Italian Permasteelisa Group. The church foundation in Barcelona awarded them the contract through a tender.
Assembly in early summer
The idea for the glass cross originated from the Sagrada Família foundation. The firm first constructed a prototype and is now manufacturing six parts at its Gundelfingen facility, which will form the cross.
The components will be assembled in Barcelona on the tower early next summer. The Jesus Christ tower of the Sagrada Família is scheduled to be officially completed before the 100th anniversary of the church’s world-famous architect Antoni Gaudí’s death in 2026. The costs for the glass addition are expected to be in the lower double-digit million range.
A walkable cross for eternity
Technically, Wax noted that the cross is different from anything built before. “We have already constructed steel-glass bridges and roofs – but a walkable cross that is hollow and contains a spiral staircase – this has never been built in this form and will likely not be built again soon,” he said.
Moreover, the assembly, at an elevation of about 150 metres, is expected to take approximately two months, from June to August, but Wax could not predict exactly when the Sagrada Família will surpass the Ulm church.
