Pope Leo XIV will make a ten-day Apostolic Journey to Africa and to two other countries in Europe in the first half of 2026 and will visit a famous cahtedral immortalised by the Spanish artist Gaudi.

The first visit will be a day trip at the end of March to Monaco, followed by the Africa Journey in April, and finally a six-day Journey to Spain and in the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands in June, the Holy See Press office announced on Feb. 25.

In Monaco, Catholicism is the State religion.

At the end of 2025, Pope Leo made his first significant journey to Türkiye and Lebanon, after the announcement of the upcoming pastoral visits in Italy that will take him as far as Lampedusa, Pope Leo is resuming his worldwide pilgrimages.

His longest trip, from April 13 to 23, will see him following in the footsteps of Saint Augustine in Algeria, visiting Algiers and Annaba.

Then he will visit Cameroon in Central Africa, with stops in Yaoundé, Bamenda and Douala.

Anglophone region in the north of Cameroon, where for ten years a civil war has been underway involving the regular armed forces and the separatists.

The Pope will visit the Anglophone region in the north of Cameroon, where for 10 years a civil war has been underway involving the regular armed forces and separatists.

That will be followed by a visit to Luanda, the capital of Angola, and to Muxima and Saurimo in the former Portuguese territory.

On the final leg of his Africa tour, the pontiff will head to Equatorial Guinea, where he will visit Malabo, Mongomo and Bata.

"This will be a complex trip, which is at the same time a journey in memory of the saint of Hippo, to whose figure the Successor of Peter is linked; and then touching two developing countries, with particular attention to the least, the poor and those who care for them," Vatican News commented.

The journey will focus on peace.

          - EQUATORIAL GUINEA

The final stage of this African Journey to Equatorial Guinea, will be inn the only Spanish-speaking African country.

Vatican News compared the length of the African papal visit to that of Pope Saint John Paul II in 1985, when he visited seven countries in 11 days.

His first trip of the year is a European day trip to the Principality of Monaco, scheduled for March 28, on the eve of Holy Week.

Finally, the Pope's June 6 to 12 visit to Spain, will take him first to the capital Madrid and then Barcelona, where he will inaugurate the newest and tallest tower of the Sagrada Familia.

The church is a monumental basilica that has reshaped the skyline of the Catalan city and has taken more than 100 years to complete.

The visit falls on the 100^th anniversary of the death of Antoni Gaudí, the world-famous architect who "dreamed" the Basilica by beginning to build it.

Continuing his Journey to Spain, Pope Leo will travel from Barcelona to the Canary Islands archipelago, to carry out a journey that was already in the heart of the late Pope Francis, as the Archbishop of Madrid.