Rafael Uribe Uribe Palace of Culture

In front of you stands one of the strangest buildings in Colombia. It looks like a Flemish cathedral moved to the tropics, and in a way that is exactly what it is.

1The Belgian who arrived in 1920

In February 1920 the government of Antioquia hired the Belgian architect Agustín Goovaerts, who reached Medellín on 10 March. His first big commission was this palace for the regional government, then known as the Palacio Calibío. He drew it in Gothic Revival style, with walls in alternating bands and little turrets, something the city had never seen.

2A project too big

The plan was enormous and the money was short. The economic crises of the time slowed the works, and Goovaerts went back to Belgium in 1928. His successors had to cut the budget, and in 1938 construction was halted with the north side unfinished. The façades were only completed in 1970, and not entirely to the original drawings.

Only part of the dream palace was ever built: what you see is a fragment of a much larger building.

In 1982 it was declared a national monument. In 1987 the regional government moved to the La Alpujarra civic centre, and the building became a cultural centre named after Rafael Uribe Uribe, a Liberal general of the Thousand Days' War. Gabriel García Márquez said that this general partly inspired Colonel Aureliano Buendía.

3What to look for

• The checkerboard façade, with its alternating bands.
• The metal dome, whose frame was brought from Belgium.
• The pointed arches of doors and windows, Goovaerts's Gothic signature.