The cathedral on Plaza de Armas, completed in 1856, is Puerto Montt's oldest building — a single-naved, neoclassical white-painted timber structure with a tall central bell tower. The interior is plain, painted pale blue, and lit by tall round-arched windows.
Quiet most of the day apart from the noon mass. Combine with a wander across the plaza and into the small Museo Regional next door.
A story
The cathedral is built almost entirely from alerce — the Patagonian cypress that grows in the temperate rainforests south of Puerto Montt. Alerce is so dense, slow-growing, and resistant to rot that some of the boards in the cathedral roof are estimated to be three thousand years old. The species is now protected and felling is prohibited; this is one of the largest buildings ever made from it.