The neo-Gothic cathedral on Plaza Moreno is one of the largest churches in the Americas and one of the great unfinished stories in Argentine architecture. Construction began in 1884, the year La Plata was founded, and the original design called for two enormous towers flanking the entrance. The towers were finally completed — in 1999, 115 years later — making this one of the longest construction projects of any cathedral in the Western Hemisphere.
The scale is genuinely impressive from inside and out. The nave is vast and dim, the rose windows large enough to fill the space with coloured light, and the Gothic ribbing on the vaulted ceiling creates a dramatic upward perspective. A lift inside one of the towers takes visitors up to a terrace with a sweeping view across the city's geometric grid — from here the diagonal avenues and the perfect regularity of La Plata's street plan are clearly visible, a reminder that this was a city designed on a drawing board rather than grown organically. The view is worth the small entry fee.
story: "La Plata was founded in 1882 as a planned city, and the cathedral's cornerstone was laid on the same day as the city itself. The architect Ernesto Meyer based the design on the cathedrals of Cologne and Amiens — but Argentina ran out of money and political will before the towers could be built, and for over a century the cathedral stood with flat, stubby turrets where the soaring spires should have been."