Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro
A 75-metre concrete cone modeled on Mayan pyramids — the last silhouette you expect from a Catholic cathedral.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Rio de Janeiro offline.
Designed by Edgar de Oliveira da Fonseca and completed in 1979, this cathedral stretches 96 metres across its interior and stands room for 20,000 people under one unbroken vault. It replaced an 18th-century church as Rio's archdiocesan seat, and the architectural whiplash between the two buildings is itself worth the trip.
What to look for
- Four rectilinear stained glass windows that climb 64 metres from floor to ceiling
- The exterior cone: 106 metres wide at the base, tapering to a 75-metre peak
- The sheer floor area — 8,000 square metres of open interior under a single roof
Located in central Rio; the 18th-century church it replaced, now called the Old Cathedral, still stands nearby for direct comparison.
Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro is one of 29 sights worth the detour in Rio de Janeiro, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Rio de Janeiro pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Rio de Janeiro
- Christ the RedeemerArms stretched 28 metres wide at the summit of a 700-metre mountain, face turned east to meet the sunrise every morning.
- Maracanã StadiumOn 16 July 1950, 210,850 people packed this bowl to watch Uruguay beat Brazil 2–1 — the largest crowd ever recorded at a football match, and that record still stands.
- Museu NacionalOne fire in 2018 erased 200 years of collecting — 20 million objects, Brazil's oldest scientific institution, mostly gone overnight.
- Estádio Nilton Santos (Engenhão)The stadium that blew six times its construction budget and then hosted an Olympics.
- Arquivo Nacional (Brazilian National Archives)Brazil's paper memory since 1838 — founded as the Imperial Public Archives before the republic even existed.
- Rio–Niterói BridgeEight kilometres of concrete over open water, built so a bay full of ships and two city skylines could coexist.