The New Cathedral is hard to miss and impossible to mistake for anything else. Designed by the Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and completed in 1993, it consists of a main body covered by sixty-three small domes of varying sizes, with a large central dome rising above them — the whole thing clad in pale stucco and splashed with pink and purple colour. It was built to replace the ruined Old Cathedral and was deliberately designed to withstand future earthquakes.
The interior is large, cool, and less successful than the exterior — cavernous and somewhat bare, though a beautifully lit statue of the "Sangre de Cristo" (Blood of Christ), brought here from the old cathedral, draws devotees throughout the day. The building is more interesting as an architectural statement than as a religious space, but it has become the city's most recognisable modern landmark. The grounds outside are pleasant in the evening.