The Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro is one of Brazil's most arresting pieces of modern architecture. The building is a massive concrete cone — 80 metres in diameter and 75 metres tall — that seats up to 20,000 worshippers. From outside it resembles a Mayan pyramid dropped into the Centro district; from inside, it is something else entirely.
Four enormous stained-glass windows run from floor to almost the apex of the cone, flooding the interior with coloured light. The lack of supporting columns means the entire 20,000-person space is unobstructed — the scale is overwhelming. A small museum in the basement houses religious artefacts and the cardinal's historic vestments. The cathedral is on Avenida República do Chile in Centro, a short walk from the Carioca metro station.