Metropolitan Cathedral and Bolívar Park

In front of you is Medellín's cathedral, one of the largest brick churches in the world. Some 1,120,000 bricks bound with mortar went into it.

1A false start

The first stone was blessed on 9 February 1875, to a design by the Italian Filippo Crosti. The works soon ran into the La Loca stream, which crossed the site and had to be channelled and covered, and the plans proved unworkable. One French architect went as far as saying the design showed «the most profound ignorance».

2The Frenchman of brick

In 1889, after weeks by ship, train and mule, the Frenchman Charles Émile Carré arrived. He designed a three-aisled Romanesque Revival cathedral suited to local materials: brick, lime and stone. He led the works until 1894 and left plans for others to finish. In August 1931 the church at last became the cathedral, a rank La Candelaria had held until then.

In 1924 some claimed it was about to collapse; a century later, it is still standing.

The park in front of you was born in 1844, when Tyrrell Moore gave the land. It opened in 1892, and in 1923 the equestrian statue of Bolívar, by the Italian Giovanni Anderlini, was set in place. On the south-east side stands the Lido Theatre.

3What to look for

• The exposed brick, unplastered, as Carré intended.
• The two towers, about 53 metres high.
• Bolívar's statue in the centre of the park.