Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral

Cathedral in Argentina

Antonio Masella (1752)
| groundbreaking = 1754
| year completed =

It is located in the city center, overlooking Plaza de Mayo, on the corner of San Martín and Rivadavia streets, in the San Nicolás neighbourhood. It is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and the primatial church of Argentina since 1822. he set aside for the main church or cathedral the same quarter of a city block that it occupies today. Two brothers from the Jesuit Order, architect one and bricklayer the other completed this first cathedral, as well as several other religious buildings of this early city. Regarding the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, during this century the new city depended on, the diocese of the Río de la Plata (in today's Paraguay), created by Pope Paul III on July 1, 1547 with seat in Asunción. The major parish church was a modest construction with adobe and wood walls, had two towers that gave the current Avenida Rivadavia the former name of Calle de las Torres, which in 1605 Governor Hernandarias ordered to demolish for being too old and indecent. We do not know what proportions would have the one that was built in its place with wood brought expressly from Paraguay. Years later, in 1616, its roof threatened to collapse and the parish, together with the Most Holy statue, had to move to the Church of San Francisco, and while projects were made to reform it, requesting for it the pecuniary contribution of the faithful, the church ended up collapsing because it was poorly built and with rotten willow wood. Neither the Cabildo, Justice and Regiment of the city lost heart and immediately chartered a ship to Paraguay to acquire and bring the necessary wood for the rebuilding of the temple. The work began in January 1618. According to the budget of Pascual Ramírez, who would carry out the work, the cost would be 1,100 pesos. We do not have exact information on the collection of the money, but we do know that by the end of that same year the work on the church was finished. But there was a difficulty: it was smaller than the previous one, so much so that in 1621 there was already talk of building another one to be used as a cathedral. In the meantime, in Madrid and in Rome, the procedures for the creation of the Diocese of Buenos Aires were being carried out. The bull of canonical erection of this church as cathedral by His Holiness Pope Paul V is dated April 6, 1620 and its execution took place on June 26, 1622 by its first bishop, the Carmelite friar Pedro Carranza, in a solemn meeting with the authorities and the people, "The Blessed Sacrament is in a rough and poorly standing wooden box." "And as far as the building is corcerned, it is necessary to board it up and accommodate it, otherwise it will all fall to the ground and we will go to a convent church to make cathedral". This was, then, what we can call the first cathedral.

When the third bishop of Buenos Aires, Friar Cristóbal de la Mancha y Velazco arrived at his see on October 6, 1641, he found the cathedral, if not in a ruinous state, at least very deteriorated. So he immediately conceived the idea of building a new cathedral and communicated it to the king on November 19, 1662. According to the plan he enclosed, the temple was to have three naves; for its construction, 5,000 pesos would be needed, a sum he requested from the royal treasury. In the person of the excellent governor Don José Martínez de Salazar, the bishop found someone who would collaborate in the construction of the temple not only with his influence, but even with money of his own. In 1671 the cathedral was finished, it consisted of three naves, a wooden roof and a tower, The mausoleum was specially designed by French sculptor Albert Ernest Carrier Belleuse, with marble of various colours. The black sarcophagus is guarded by three life size female figures that represent Argentina, Chile and Peru, three of the regions freed by the General. The mausoleum also has the remains of Generals Juan Gregorio de las Heras and Tomás Guido, as well as those of the Unknown Soldier of the Independence.

Pope Francis was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires for 15 years. Then known as Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, he used to hold mass at this cathedral before moving to the Vatican in 2013. The cathedral houses the Pope Francis Museum, which holds some of his personal and liturgical objects.