The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Conceição) was consecrated in 1944, replacing a smaller 19th-century church on the same site. It is unusually plain for a Catholic cathedral — concrete-white, almost cubist, with a single sharp spire rising above the centre. The architect, Marcial Simões de Freitas e Costa, was a Portuguese modernist working in the late-Art-Deco mode that defines so much of central Maputo.
The interior is cool and stripped-back: pale walls, simple wooden pews, modern stained-glass windows in cobalt and red. Mass is held daily in Portuguese, and Sunday services draw a large congregation. Photographers should aim for late afternoon, when the sun lights the spire from the west.