Since 1882, the construction of the Antoni Gaudí-designed building had been carried out illegally.

That all changed on Friday when Janet Sanz, Barcelona’s deputy mayor for ecology, urbanism and mobility, tweeted an image showing her signing the permit.

Barcelona’s city council awarded the license to the committee in charge of completing the construction of the church for €4.6 million (£4.1m), on top of the €36m (£31m) it has already agreed to pay for the expenses generated by years of building work.

The money will be used to fund projects designed to mitigate the impact of approximately 4.5 million people who visit the unfinished basilica every year.

Sanz told reporters that the council had finally managed to “resolve a historical anomaly in the city — that an emblematic monument like the Sagrada Familia… didn’t have a building permit, that it was being constructed illegally,” Agence France-Presse reported.