Just over seven months after releasing its most expensive set ever, Lego announced it is dropping its biggest record-breaker yet: a 12,060-piece model of the world’s most famous unfinished church, the Basílica de la Sagrada Família.
The gargantuan set arrives during the centennial year of architect Antoni Gaudí’s death. Gaudí designed the iconic Barcelona masterpiece, knowing he wasn’t going to be alive to see it completed. He noted that “his client” (God) wasn’t in a hurry, according to the Sagrada Família website. While Gaudí might not have realized his architectural masterpiece would take over 140 years to complete, Lego enthusiasts are hoping the plastic brick model takes less time. Some have jokingly accepted it might take generations to complete the 12,060-piece set.
The set is designed to mimic the historical construction of the actual building. Builders start with the foundational apse and crypt, progress through Gaudí’s original Nativity and Passion façades, and build upward through the grand naves, the Western Sacristy and the six towers, according to Lego.
“We felt immense responsibility to do justice to the Sagrada Família through this design,” said Rok Žgalin Kobe, an architecture designer at Lego. “Our goal was to honor Gaudí’s vision with the utmost respect, capturing the rhythm of the basilica’s construction, its extraordinary complexity and ambition, and translating that into an immersive building experience.”
The completed model stands more than 24 inches tall, 18.5 inches wide and 15 inches deep. It also features brick work to recreate the basilica’s stained-glass lighting effects.
In the real world, the actual Sagrada Família stands 566 feet tall. It reached architectural completion in February when a nearly 56-foot-tall cross was placed atop the central Tower of Jesus Christ, according to the Vatican News. While major construction on the church has finished, minor decorative and architectural updates will continue for several more years. Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to bless and inaugurate the central tower on Wednesday.
The record-breaking set is priced at $799.99. Preorders are open now on Lego’s website, and the box officially hits shelves on Nov. 1.
Online, fans are also joking the box might ship with missing pieces to make the build even more authentic.
Lego says the set is a perfect display piece to be viewed from every angle, a centerpiece for travel lovers, history enthusiasts and architecture enthusiasts.
“This is not only the largest LEGO set ever, but a model of one of the most ambitious architectural works in the world,” Lego’s Kobe continued. “Balancing scale and precision, while remaining faithful to a living monument that has been evolving for more than a century, was a unique design challenge — and one we’re incredibly proud of.”
The previous set record holder for most pieces was Lego’s Art World Map with over 11,000 pieces, followed by the Eiffel Tower with 10,001 pieces.
La Sagrada Família will join the Lego Architecture lineup, which celebrates buildings all over the world, including New York City, Notre-Dame de Paris and the Great Pyramid of Giza.