This year marks the centennial death anniversary of “God’s Architect” Antoni Gaudí, declared a “Venerable” (into the second step to sainthood) by Pope Francis on 14 April 2025 before the pope died.

The renowned Catalan architect, best-known for designing the iconic La Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain, knew that his magnum opus could not be finished in his lifetime, so he left his designs and instructions for four generations to follow. Now, eight generations have worked on the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage-listed Roman Catholic basilica and it is still not finished. But at least Gaudi’s instruction and request to have giant clamshells as the basilica’s holy water fonts has been fulfilled — thanks to donations from the Philippines.

On 16 September 2010, H.E. Eduardo José A. de Vega, who served as the Philippines’ Consul General to Barcelona, Spain from 2008 to 2011, formally made the donation of six Philippine giant clam shells or taklobo (Tridacna gigas) holy water fonts to the representatives of the Sagrada Família Foundation, including foundation president Joan Rigol i Roig and construction director Jordi Bonet.

The giant clam shells breed in tropical Indo-Pacific shallow coral reefs from Myanmar to Fiji, southern Japan and northern Australia, with key strongholds including the Great Barrier Reef, Indonesia and the Philippines (Bolinao, Palawan).

Although considered critically endangered as of late 2024 due to 84 percent population decline in the past century because of habitat loss and overharvesting, the giant clamshells serve not only as fulfillment of Gaudi’s wish, but their donation is seen as a gesture of “expression of historical, social and cultural ties between the Philippines and Spain,” as signified by the bilingual brass plaque that acknowledges the donation, saying: “Alay ng Sambayanang Pilipino / Ofrenda del pueblo Filipino (An offering from the Filipino nation).”