The Basílica del Voto Nacional is the largest neo-Gothic church in the Americas, an enormous grey stone building that rises above the northern edge of the Historic Centre. Construction began in 1892 and the church is still not considered officially complete, though it has been in use for over a century. From the street, the scale is impressive; from a distance, the two 115-metre towers dominate the Quito skyline.
The main attraction is climbing to the towers. This requires ascending through the nave, up a series of increasingly vertiginous metal staircases, and eventually out onto the exterior of the towers via a narrow gangway — not for those with a fear of heights, but absolutely spectacular for everyone else. The views from the top take in the full Historic Centre below, the surrounding volcanoes, and on clear days the snow-capped cone of Cayambe to the northeast. The interior of the church is also worth seeing: the nave is genuinely imposing in scale, the stained glass is extraordinary, and the overall effect is closer to a French Gothic cathedral than anything else in South America.