Fodor's Expert Review Catedral de la Inmaculada

Started in 1886 and finished more than 80 years later, the city's immense Romanesque cathedral can hold more than 9,000 worshippers. (Locals refer to the building as the Catedral Nueva (new cathedral); it replaced the Sagrario across the plaza as the seat of the archdiocese of Cuenca.) The interior arches tower more than 100 feet high, and light that enters through the stained-glass windows casts a golden glow over the thick brick walls and Italian marble floors. The impressive pillars are Ecuadoran marble, and the choir chairs are hand-carved from native wood.