New Cathedral of Cuenca

Begun in 1885 under the vision of German Redemptorist friar Juan Bautista Stiehle, Cuenca’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception crowns the edge of Parque Calderón with sweeping Romanesque Revival grandeur. Its monumental facade, chiseled from rose-tinted marble quarried in nearby Tarqui, supports three colossal sky-blue and white glazed ceramic domes imported from Czechoslovakia. An endearing engineering miscalculation anchors the exterior: the twin front bell towers were halted prematurely when builders discovered the foundations could not bear their intended height, permanently gifting the cathedral its squat, fortress-like silhouette beneath the Andean sky. Stepping inside the cavernous nave, which accommodates up to 9,000 worshippers, the air cools against vast expanses of polished Italian marble. Sunlight filters through brilliant Spanish stained-glass windows, casting vibrant jewel tones across vaulted brick aisles toward the high altar. Here stands the cathedral’s crowning artistic triumph: a towering, gold-leaf baldachin framed by twisted Solomonic columns, carved in faithful homage to Bernini’s masterpiece in the Vatican. Ascending the narrow spiral staircase to the open-air terrace, travelers encounter a brisk mountain breeze and an intimate view of the vibrant tiled domes set against the terracotta rooftops of the colonial city below.