Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción — Attraction in Cuenca

It’s the most recognizable structure of Cuenca, one of UNESCO-designated World Heritage Centers👏👏👏. This building is one of many architectural treasures of the city, but this one is not an old colonial structure. It’s a modern edifice constructed from the mid-1880s to mid-1960s.

It’s a predominant Neo-Romanesque with Spanish Baroque influence, conceived by the German architect Johannes Baptista Stiehle who also built San Alfonso Basílica of Cuenca and the Buga Basilica in Colombia.

The arches, both interior and exterior, are very Romanesque/Byzantine. The most notable feature are the Renaissance-designed blue/white domes made of tiles imported from the former Czechoslovakia.

The building is mostly Ecuadorian marble 😎😎😎 but the floor marble apparently are Italian.

The main entrance door has a dramatic arch entrance, the door itself is a very thick heavy metal (bronze?) and highly decorated. It leads to a high altar, with all the usual catholic idols.

The altar is a theatrical Spanish Baroque design.

😎 It is made wood with highly carved and spiraling Solomonic columns.

😎 The canopy of the altar has been carved to resemble the canopy of the Peter’s Basilica of Vatican.

😎 The entire altar including the columns layered in gold.

The side naves are exact replicas of the central nave. They have several altars, each dedicated to a catholic saint, one of whom was an Ecuadorian Hermano Miguel.

The building is actually unfinished.

• The two side towers are less than half the original design. The “shortened” towers are the base of the original design.

• This was apparently due to a miscalculation😊, the base cannot support whatever would have been built on top of them.

NOT TO MISS::: At the front end of the left nave, before the presbytery,

😎😎😎 there’s an original wooden model of the design, which includes the architect’s original idea for the high towers that were not built.

On the wall is a memorial to the architect Johannes...

Wow, wow, wow! This cathedral makes other cathedrals pale in comparison. It's scale and grandeur totally blew me away. It's impressive both in the day and at night, although I'd recommend visiting in the day, as you can enter. And it opens at 7am, so there's really no excuse not to. It has distinctive blue stripes domes which are even painted blue inside too. The grand entrance, which remains closed until major events is jaw dropping. The front is relatively flat and basic, but beautiful nonetheless. But the real draw is when you enter. It's absolutely enormous and it's decorated so beautifully with incredible marble. It's also free to enter, unlike many similar places, but you are asked not to take photos and videos during services, out of respect. Likewise, you're asked to dress appropriately, so please, no flip flops and short shorts. There's also an interesting scale model of the...

My dear companion and I were totally in awe of this marvelous cathedral. I learned immediately that photos of cathedrals, the likes of which I have seen before, are ultimately powerless to transmit the powers of such grandiose spaces. The architecture, statuary, and painting about this palace of God are simply beyond photography, let alone words, which, as you know, are only worth ~1/1000 of a picture. You just gotta see for yourself. We were tearing up beholding this majestic place, no joke. Neither one of us is Catholic but we both knelt to pray and returned the following Sunday to observe mass. We never did make it up the tower, but apparently you can do so for a small fee, so do. This cathedral is truly awesome, and I am not using that word lightly like your average American idiot. See...