Monserrate Sanctuary — Attraction in Bogota, Capital District

Most churches are impressive, but this one is even more so, considering it’s built on a hill at 3200 meters above sea level. It isn’t a small church either; its height exceeds 5 meters, which gives you the sensation of feeling quite small. It has crystal chandeliers hanging from above. The inscription outside indicates that it used to be a hermitage around 1640 and remained so for centuries until construction of the church began in 1915, with renovations carried out between 1948 and 1954. The polished terrazzo floor is quite common in churches, and while I don't dislike it, at times it feels excessively elegant—more suited to a royal palace.

The main altar is almost entirely devoid of ornamentation, except for a retablo where a statue of Christ is displayed, positioned at the level of the second floor. From the altar, the statue imparts a certain majesty, but the lack of decoration makes the altar feel somewhat sterile. A small chapel dedicated to the Lady of Monserrate features ornaments in red and gold tones, with marble walls that give it an esoteric quality compared to the rest of the church. There is another small chapel at the back with confessionals, which are usually empty. In this area, there are stained glass windows that, due to receiving light only from a small corridor with a skylight, appear somewhat pale. The stained glass in the marble chapel also looks a bit strange, as if it doesn’t receive enough light or provides too much light to a space that might prefer to be in darkness.

The church also has a passageway of offerings, and the walls are filled with plaques. A staircase descends to an area marked as "a classroom." What does disappoint me is the mausoleum, because having a tomb in this elevated place is quite beautiful, and there are even two stone tables outdoors for sitting. However, the mausoleum is always closed off with iron bars. The beige interior color and white exterior take away some points, as I’m not a fan, but overall, it is an imposing...

Terrible. A truly terrible experience from beginning to end. The scene around the bottom of the Cerro de Monserrate, with vendors selling hot dogs, “big ass ants” (an aphrodisiac), and cheap trinkets in the shadow of gaudy amusement-park structures, is a foretaste of the profane hucksterism you’ll find around the church at the hill’s summit. We waited for what felt like an eternity in the cable car line, to the point where one desperate young Colombian father pushed his way forward to demand what the hell was taking so long. (It might not have been more than 40 minutes or so to finally enter the car, but it was tedious and dispiriting.) At the top, loudspeakers everywhere blasted a sermon being delivered inside the church by a priest with a curiously weak and indecisive voice; occasionally the sermon yielded to saccharine music more appropriate to a children’s TV show than a religious sanctuary. The birding trail was closed, so we ventured along a path that led to a cheap outdoor mall consisting of kiosks selling the most generic plastic trash imaginable. This stuff might as well have been retrieved from a landfill. Desperate for a reprieve from the tawdriness we climbed up a detour to an area behind the kiosks where the vendors took their breaks. It was desolate but almost refreshingly so in its honesty, after the garish desolation of the areas intended for tourists. Rejoining the path at its end we discovered a barren, sparsely populated dirt lot with a few mournful horses waiting to take Monserrate’s pilgrims on a tour downhill. We returned on the main path through a food court where there seemed to be nothing but tent after tent of people frying sausages. Then a funicular back to the congested chaos at the foot of the hill. The experience was completely draining. Do...

Monserrate Mountain is one of Bogota's most famous landmarks, featured in every travel blog and guidebook, and it's praised by nearly everyone. I, too, had high hopes and big illusions about my visit and what kind of impressions I would take away. I visited the place, but I didn't come away with much to remember, but with portion of adrenalin after way up and down using cabel car. The journey up to Monserrate is quite the ordeal. You can either hike, which is physically taxing, or take the cable car or the funicular, which is essentially a train. But for both options of transport, you need to wait in long lines under the scorching sun, which can be quite risky for those from northern climates. There is a VIP option, but be prepared to pay three times the regular ticket price. However, this is the only way to get to the top and back down without risking your sanity. The queue at the top for the return trip was even longer than the one at the bottom. The question is: why go through all this? If you've been to the top of Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro and experienced the breathtaking views, don't expect anything remotely similar here. You’ll just see the sprawling city of Bogota laid out before you, and perhaps get a rush of adrenaline if you take the creaky cable car to the summit. I understand if somebody hike up for spiritual reasons and visit the church at the top of the mountain. Yes, that might be worth it for them faith. But as a tourist attraction, it didn't meet my expectations. That said, there isn't much to do in Bogota, so you might not want to skip Monserrate entirely. Just make sure to visit on a weekday, when there are likely...