SAGRADA FAMÍLIA — CROSS OF THE TOWER OF JESUS CHRIST

On 10 June 2026, Pope Leo XIV blessed the newly completed Tower of Jesus Christ at Barcelona’s Sagrada Família, marking the centenary of Antoni Gaudí’s death. The tower is crowned by a monumental four-armed cross, one of the Basilica’s final major elements.

Some of its most complex ceramic pieces relied on 56 bespoke firing moulds, developed through robotic 3D printing.

Working since 2024 as technical partner to Ceràmica Cumella, LAMÁQUINA developed the complete process for these firing moulds. Starting from the final geometries provided by Cumella, each mould was designed and robotically 3D printed in ceramic, at dimensions ranging from approximately 20 to 60 cm.

Robotic 3D printing was not used to manufacture the final elements of the cross, but to produce the firing moulds within Cumella’s ceramic production process. Once the pieces were fired, the moulds were destroyed and their ceramic material reused — tools built for a single use, to make some of the cross’s most complex geometries possible.