Quito, Ecuador
Cathedral of Quito
Ecuador's oldest cathedral, standing on the Plaza Grande since the sixteenth century, where conquistadors and saints and ordinary believers have all knelt on the same stone floor.
The Plaza Grande is the center of everything in Quito — the presidential palace on one side, the archbishop's palace on another, and the cathedral anchoring the south. You step inside and the temperature drops. The nave is long and quiet, with heavy wooden beams overhead and side altars glinting with gold leaf that the Spanish brought from local mines. Mariana de Jesús, Ecuador's first saint, is buried here. She was a young woman who offered her life for the city during an earthquake and plague in 1645, and the faithful still leave flowers at her tomb. The cathedral has been damaged by earthquakes more than once and rebuilt each time, which gives it a layered quality — colonial bones, nineteenth-century repairs, modern touches where the walls cracked last. The Mudéjar ceiling in the central nave is original and beautiful, geometric Islamic-influenced woodwork that the Spanish builders carried in their muscle memory from Andalusia. Outside, the plaza is loud with protesters or vendors or schoolchildren. Inside, someone is always praying.
Diocese: Archdiocese of Quito
Style: Colonial Baroque with Mudéjar elements
What to See
The tomb of St. Mariana de Jesús is in a chapel to the right of the main altar — look for the flowers, which are always fresh. The Mudéjar ceiling is easy to miss if you don't look up; the geometric woodwork patterns are intricate and distinctly Iberian-Islamic in origin. The side altars show the Quito School of art at its best — polychrome saints with glass eyes and real fabric garments, a style unique to colonial Ecuador. A painting of the Descent from the Cross by indigenous artist Caspicara is among the most important colonial artworks in South America. The sacristy has additional paintings worth seeing if access is available.
Pilgrim Notes
The cathedral faces the Plaza Grande in Quito's historic center, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mass is celebrated daily. Quito sits at about 2,850 meters — give yourself a day to adjust if you are coming from sea level. The feast of St. Mariana de Jesús is May 26 and is celebrated throughout Ecuador. The cathedral charges a small entrance fee for tourists outside of Mass times. The surrounding streets are full of colonial churches — La Compañía, San Francisco, and Santo Domingo are all within walking distance and worth visiting as a group.