Metropolitan Cathedral of Asunción
Neoclassical cathedral of 1845 with a silver-clad altar and a colonial gilded retable.
A cathedral has stood in Asunción since the sixteenth century, but the site and the building changed several times as fire, damp and weak foundations took their toll. The present church was ordered by President Carlos Antonio López, begun in 1842 to plans by the Italian architect Carlos Zucchi and inaugurated on 27 October 1845. Its neoclassical front, with a pedimented portico between two low towers, faces the open Plaza de la Independencia near the river.
Inside, a single wide nave leads to a high altar clad in worked silver, a gift of the López family, behind which stands a gilded and polychrome wooden retable brought from the former Franciscan convent of the city. Side chapels hold colonial images of the Virgin and the saints, and the building contains the tombs of several archbishops. A treasury room beside the sacristy shows liturgical silver, vestments and documents, and the tower and interior were restored for the bicentenary of independence in 2011.
Highlights
- Neoclassical front of 1845 designed by Carlos Zucchi
- High altar clad in worked silver
- Gilded retable from the old Franciscan convent
- Treasury of liturgical silver and vestments
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