LONDON (AP) — The late Laurence Olivier, arguably Britain’s greatest ever stage actor, was honored Wednesday with a blue plaque attached to the central London property where he lived as a child.
Unveiled by Ian McKellen, the plaque at 22 Lupus Street in Pimlico marks the place where Olivier began acting as a child.
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FILE - Laurence Olivier, left, and Vivien Leigh are seen backstage at the 51st Street Theater on Broadway after their opening performance in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," May 9, 1940, in New York. (AP Photo/Anthony Camerano, File)
Ian McKellan speaks at the unveiling of a Blue Plaque for Laurence Olivier in London, England, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
FILE - Actors Vivien Leigh, left, and Laurence Olivier arrive in New York aboard the ocean liner Mauritania, Dec. 6, 1951. (AP Photo/Tom Fitzsimmons, File)
Ian McKellan poses for photographers at the unveiling of a Blue Plaque for Laurence Olivier in London, England, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Ian McKellan unveils a Blue Plaque for Laurence Olivier in London, England, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
“For those of us who were lucky enough to have seen him in the theater, it’s of course quite right that, because he was the leader of our profession for so many years, it’s appropriate that this should be put up," McKellen told The Associated Press after the event. “Actors go out of fashion very quickly, but I've a feeling that this man's name will never be forgotten, and perhaps because of this plaque."
Olivier lived at Lupus Street between the ages of 6 and 11. While there, he reportedly transformed a wooden box and blue curtains into a makeshift stage where he sang, danced, and acted for hours at a time.
Olivier was venerated as a Shakespearean actor, playing many iconic protagonists in London including Hamlet, Henry V, Macbeth and, controversially, Othello. For his role as Hamlet, Olivier won his only Academy Award for best actor in 1949. Other famous screen roles include ones in “Rebecca," "Wuthering Heights"," "Marathon Man" and "Sleuth."
London owes much to Olivier, who died at age 82 in 1989.
He campaigned for the establishment of the National Theatre. The building that now houses the theatre officially opened in 1976 and its largest auditorium is named after Olivier.
“Laurence Olivier transformed British theater and film through the brilliance, range and intensity of his performances," said English Heritage senior historian Howard Spencer. "The plaque celebrates the formative home where one of Britain’s greatest cultural figures first found his voice as an actor.”
The Olivier Awards, which celebrate London's theater scene, were named in his honor.
The London blue plaque program began more than 150 years ago. The plaques commemorate notable people who made London their home at some point. There are more than 900 official plaques in the capital.
The first plaque commemorated the poet Lord Byron in 1867 but the house was later demolished. The oldest surviving plaque commemorates France’s final emperor, Napoleon III.
FILE - Laurence Olivier, left, and Vivien Leigh are seen backstage at the 51st Street Theater on Broadway after their opening performance in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," May 9, 1940, in New York. (AP Photo/Anthony Camerano, File)
Ian McKellan speaks at the unveiling of a Blue Plaque for Laurence Olivier in London, England, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
FILE - Actors Vivien Leigh, left, and Laurence Olivier arrive in New York aboard the ocean liner Mauritania, Dec. 6, 1951. (AP Photo/Tom Fitzsimmons, File)
Ian McKellan poses for photographers at the unveiling of a Blue Plaque for Laurence Olivier in London, England, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Ian McKellan unveils a Blue Plaque for Laurence Olivier in London, England, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Sagrada Familia Basilica as a masterpiece of “stones, colors and light,” as he marked the centenary of the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudí, with a Mass on Wednesday to inaugurate its final soaring sandcastle spire.
Leo called Gaudí’s unfinished temple, one of the world’s most visited monuments, a “sign of unity and harmony for all of Spain,” an ongoing building project like the lifelong journey all Christians make to find God.
“We are all the living stones of this edifice,” Leo said from the altar of the basilica, with Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia sitting to his side and a hundreds-strong choir filling the basilica with song.
The service marked the highlight of Leo’s weeklong visit to Spain, the first by a pope in 15 years to the once staunchly Catholic European country that, like many others, has experienced secularizing trends.
The trip, though, has underscored how the country of 50 million people, which experienced a religious crisis after its 20th century dictatorship ended, still has plenty of faithful Catholics who have turned out in droves to welcome the American pope.
An estimated 120,000 people lined the streets around Sagrada Familia for the event, with streets closed to traffic and a heavy police presence, given the attendance of the royal couple and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The crowds remained after Mass to watch as Leo inaugurated the basilica's final Tower of Jesus Christ that has made it the world's tallest church.
Speaking in Catalan and Spanish, Leo blessed the tower and its illuminated ceramic cross from outside the basilica, surrounded by bishops craning their mitre-capped heads to look up. An angelic boy's choir sang as a spectacular light show lit up the basilica's stained glass windows from the inside and fireworks shot off its facade.
Earlier Wednesday, Leo celebrated a more ancient sacred monument, traveling to Montserrat, a mountain complex outside the city that is dear to many Catalans. The complex, which includes an 11th-century Benedictine abbey and a 16th-century basilica, is revered for its Black Madonna statue and is home to a boy's choir that has existed since the 13th century and is Europe's oldest.
Thousands of faithful arrived early at the monastery, with groups of nuns and schoolchildren singing and waving signs and photographs of the pope outside the basilica. Bells rang out over the spire-like rock formations that top Montserrat and the valley below as Leo arrived in a golf cart.
In recent years, the Montserrat abbey has faced numerous accusations from survivors of clergy sexual abuse and was included in the Spanish ombudsman’s 800-page report on the crisis in 2023. The report found 15 victims and three alleged perpetrators linked to the abbey.
“It’s very painful because there are members of the church who committed errors,” said the Rev. Cesario Escarda, a Toledo priest, as he waited for Leo at the abbey. “What the pope wants to do is shine a light on the truth and ask forgiveness and bring in the victims and listen to them and accompany them.”
The highlight of Leo’s visit, though, was his Mass at Sagrada Familia to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of its famed Catalan designer, Gaudí, who died at age 73, three days after he was hit by a tram.
A century after construction began during the pontificate of Leo’s namesake, Pope Leo XIII, the basilica has become one of the world’s most visited but unfinished monuments, annually drawing upward of 5 million visitors a year.
Commemorating Gaudí's death, Leo said he wanted to give thanks to all the supporters, artists and workers who “cooperated in the construction of an architectural masterpiece, which is also an eloquent catechesis made of stones, colors and light.”
Gaudí, who is on the path to possible sainthood, spent four decades designing and building the temple as the summary of the Christian faith carved in stone. The most important stories of Jesus’ life, the Nativity and Passion, are etched into the basilica’s east and west facades. A third facade facing south, the Glory, will serve as the basilica’s main entrance when finished.
The temple is an architectural and geometrical masterpiece inside and out, an art nouveau celebration in form and symbol of Christianity and God’s creation through stone and light.
“Much more than a monument, the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia remains a work in progress today, reminding us that the Christian life is always a journey, because it is a project that God is carrying out,” Leo said in his homily.
A total of 18 sandcastle spires rise up from the top and pierce Barcelona’s skyline: 12 to symbolize Christ’s 12 apostles, four for each of the four Evangelists who recorded Christ’s life in the Gospels, one topped with a star over the apse honoring the Virgin Mary and, tallest among them, the Tower of Jesus Christ.
When the final Christ tower was finished last year at a height of 172½ meters (564 feet), it made Sagrada Familia the world’s tallest church.
“The entire structure of the Sagrada Familia is striking,” said Laura Rincón, who was on hand outside along with two friends for the Mass, after she finished work in a nearby shop. She said that she was sure the pope would be impressed by the church she marvels at every time she passes by.
“If you look at it just for its architecture, it is amazing,” she said. “Inside, its columns make you feel like you are inside a forest.”
The cross-shaped interior, with the altar at the apse, is an homage to light and nature. Treelike columns soar to the sky, colored by constantly changing light filtered through stained glass windows like the sun poking through leaves in a forest.
“Nature is my teacher,” Gaudí once said. “Everything comes from the great book of nature, always open that we must read.”
The colors of the window glass have meaning: The blues and greens of the eastern portal windows, where the facade depicts Christ’s birth, look more joyful and are most brilliant when the sun rises and light passes through. The coarser shades of red and orange, illuminated by the setting sun on the western portals, color the side of the basilica that depicts Christ’s Passion. Behind the altar and above the cross are yellows and gold that glimmer in the noonday sun.
Historian Mònica Santín, who leads tours of the basilica, said that in designing Sagrada Familia, Gaudí was guided by two books: the Gospels and nature.
“The way he lets in the natural light is also an invitation to the Christian mystery,” she said, citing the three facades depicting Christ’s birth, death and glory.
“And when you enter inside, it is all light,” Santín said. “What is that the symbol of? We can’t see God, but we perceive his light all around us. I think that is how you can read this message, and it is fascinating.”
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
People attend the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ by Pope Leo XIV at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Priests attend the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Basilica of the Sagrada FamÌlia in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pope Leo XIV attends the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Basilica of the Sagrada FamÃlia in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Priests attend the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Basilica of the Sagrada FamÌlia in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pope Leo XIV, bottom, walks in procession to celebrate a mass in the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A view of the ceiling at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia before Pope Leo XIV's arrival to celebrate Mass in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Pope Leo XIV leaves at the end of a meeting with faithful and members of the diocesan charity and welfare organizations in the Church of Sant Agusti in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV blesses a child as he meets with faithful and members of the diocesan charity and welfare organizations in the Church of Sant Agusti in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV leads a rosary prayer at the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat, in Montserrat, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful from the balcony after leading a rosary at the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat, in Montserrat, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)
People wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV to lead a rosary at the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat, in Montserrat, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
People wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV to lead a rosary at the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat, in Montserrat, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Antoni Gaudí's Basilica of the Sagrada Família stands at dusk as seen from the Mirador Torre Glòries in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pope Leo XIV looks at the cheering crowd upon arriving to attend a midday prayer at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Visitors take photos inside the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to the city in June. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A view of the Basilica of Montserrat at the Monastery of Montserrat near Barcelona, Spain, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A view of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, May 20, 2026, ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to the city in June. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to attend a prayer vigil at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pope Leo XIV blesses a child before a prayer vigil at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
