Metropolitan Cathedral - Built to Last, Sinking Anyway

Photo: Ulisesmorales, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)

A stop on Mexico City: Centro Historico Walk, a free self-guided tour.

In front of you rises the largest cathedral in the Americas, and it took its time: builders started in 1573 and did not finish until 1813. That is why one facade reads like a history of architecture, with sober Renaissance lines low down, ornate Baroque carving in the middle, and Neoclassical touches on top, including the clock and the statues of Faith, Hope and Charity added by the architect Manuel Tolsa.

The ground beneath hides a problem. Mexico City sits on the soft clay of a drained lake, and the cathedral is enormously heavy. As wells pumped water out from below, the building sank unevenly and began to lean. In the 1990s engineers carefully dug beneath the higher parts so the church could settle back toward level, then reinforced the soil to slow further sinking. It was taken off an international list of endangered monuments in 2000.

If no service is underway, step inside and walk to the far end to see the gilded Altar of the Kings, a wall of carved and golden saints.

Getting here: Walk north across the Zocalo to the cathedral's main doors, about two minutes.

Did you know?: The cathedral's towers hold 25 bells; the largest, named Santa Maria de Guadalupe, weighs about 13 tonnes.

Photo op: From the southwest part of the Zocalo, frame the full facade with the lacy stone front of the Sagrario chapel just to its right.

More on Wikipedia: Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral · Manuel Tolsa

Metropolitan Cathedral - Built to Last, Sinking Anyway

Stops on this tour