Huge European tourist attraction forced to spend £2.3m after crowds cause chaos

Authorities in Barcelona are planning to construct a special zone for people to "take selfies" after a dangerous trend took hold outside its most famous landmark.

A recent TikTok video which went viral in Barcelona saw the tourist-clad destination overrun with social media users clogging metro exits. It's reported they had been eager to try their hand at replicating the same act in city’s famous square - that is, until the city council stepped in.

Plaça Gaudí, the square in front of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, was fraught with TikTok-enthusiastic tourists balancing their phones on metro escalators to film themselves while the iconic monument appeared in the background.

The sheer amount of visitors looking to capture their individual shots led to severely clogged station exits and was eventually banned. Subsequently, Barcelona City Council has now decided to construct a special zone beside the Sagrada Familia where visitors can take selfies before entering.

The 6,200-sqm ‘anteroom’ will be located between the Nativity façade of the basilica and Plaça Gaudí on Carrer de la Marina. “The new project helps to resolve a space where it is difficult to reconcile uses between visitors to the temple and the neighbourhood,” the city council said.

Construction on the gathering zone is scheduled to begin after the 2025 summer and be finished by April 2026 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death. The €2.7 million (£2.3 million) project is part of a wider €15.5 million (£13.2 million) plan to improve infrastructure and visitor management around the sacred site.

In 2024, the city launched a €44 million plan to regulate crowds in 16 tourist hotspots by deploying more cleaners and police officers to maintain order and safety.

The Sagrada Familia is the most visited tourist attraction in Barcelona and welcomes millions of visitors every year. That said, entrance queues can be quite long so you should be prepared with water and sunscreen.

The Sagrada Família is Antoni Gaudí's best-known work and has been under construction since 1882. Although the architect Francesc de Paula Villar was originally commissioned to carry out the Sagrada Família's project, just a year later he was replaced by the young Gaudí.

The Nativity façade and crypt have been awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO. To learn more about the history of the building, you can book a walking tour of the church, which also include skip-the-line tickets.

Despite the introduction of a new zone to battle tourist and selfie-stick wielders, Barcelona - like many other popular European cities - is still having a standoff with foreign tourists.

Spain hosted a record 94 million international visitors in 2024, compared with 83 million in 2019. Locals have even taken to shooting water at tourists as a way to protest their presence in cities like Barcelona.

“The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit,” Andreu Martínez said in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a couple seated at an outdoor café. “Barcelona has been handed to the tourists. This is a fight to give Barcelona back to its residents.”