2 Best Sights in Montevideo, Uruguay

It's officially the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and St. Phillip and St. James, but it is known to Montevideans as the Matriz ("head") Church, as well as the Catedral Metropolitana de Montevideo. The cathedral is the oldest public building in Montevideo, with a distinctive pair of dome-cap bell towers that stand guard over the plaza below. Besides its rich marble interior, colorful floor tiling, stained glass, and dome, the Matriz Church is notable as the final resting place of many of Uruguay's most important political and military figures.

Too tiny to require flying buttresses, the ornately Gothic Holy Family Church, also known as Capilla Jackson, is complete in all other respects. A troop of gargoyles peers down at you from this Jesuit house of worship, and the finely wrought stained-glass windows become radiant when backlit by the sun.