Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral

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Mexico City Cathedral, with the Sagrario Metropolitano slightly to the right.

The Cathedral as seen from Francisco I. Madero Street

The Cathedral Metropolitana in Mexico City is one of the largest cathedrals in the Western Hemisphere. It was constructed in the Spanish Baroque style of architecture and includes a pair of 64-meter neoclassical towers which hold 18 bells.

The church is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico. It is located on Mexico City's central square, the Zócalo (officially Constitution Square).

After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, Hernan Cortés began the construction of a Catholic church. This church was demolished circa 1573 and a new cathedral was built on the same place. A side chapel, the Sagrario Metropolitano (1749-69), is the greatest triumph of the Mexican Churrigueresque style. The new cathedral was consecrated in 1667, but the final elements — bell towers and central dome designed by the Spanish neoclassical architect Manuel Tolsá — were finished in 1813.

The soft clay subsoil beneath Mexico City, which was originally built on a lake bed, and the removal of water from the soil has caused the sinking of many of the buildings in Mexico City's historic centre. Underground tunnels to stabilize the cathedral have prevented its collapse and have stabilized the uneven inclination of its sinking.