Rio de Janeiro Cathedral

Rio de Janeiro Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

Entry is free and there is no ticket desk; a small museum of sacred art in the basement charges a token fee. The cathedral stands in the Centro, a few minutes from the Carioca metro station and directly beside the Lapa Arches, so reaching it costs nothing more than a metro fare. Guided city tours include it as a stop between Sugarloaf and the Selaron steps and cost a moderate amount, adding the commentary that the building needs, since its symbolism is deliberate and unsignposted.

Walking tours of the historic centre pair it with the Confeitaria Colombo tearoom and the Municipal Theatre. There is nothing to book. The surrounding streets are busy on weekdays and empty at weekends, when the centre shuts down; going on a Saturday afternoon means an easy visit and an area with very few people, which local advice suggests avoiding after dark.

Visiting Rio de Janeiro Cathedral: what to see

Edgar de Oliveira da Fonseca designed the cathedral as a truncated cone, built between 1964 and 1979, and the reference is Mayan pyramids rather than any European model. From outside it looks industrial, a ribbed concrete cylinder 96 metres across. Inside, the effect reverses completely: the space is open with no columns, seats 5,000 and holds 20,000 standing, and four stained-glass strips 64 metres tall run from floor to the roof in four colours, meeting in the cross of the skylight above. Nothing else is decorated.

The height, 75 metres, and the absence of any middle ground between the concrete and the glass produce a stillness that surprises people who dislike the exterior. A bronze bust of Pope John Paul II stands by the entrance, and the crypt holds the tomb of Pedro Fernandes Sardinha, the first bishop of Brazil, eaten by the Caete people in 1556 according to the chroniclers. Bronze doors by the sculptor Humberto Cozzo carry reliefs of the history of the church in Brazil, and the baptistery to one side is lined in blue tile.

Rio de Janeiro Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from morning to late afternoon, with masses on Sunday mornings and on some weekday evenings. The stained glass works best when the sun is high, so the middle of the day is genuinely the right time here, the opposite of the usual advice. Rio is hot and humid from December to March, and the concrete interior stays cool. The cathedral is floodlit at night and the four coloured strips glow from outside, which is worth a look if you are passing on the way to Lapa.

Dress is informal. Photography is allowed. Allow half an hour. The Lapa Arches beside the cathedral carry the Santa Teresa tram, which runs up the hill from beside the building and is an easy and cheap continuation of the visit. The Sunday morning mass fills a fraction of the building and gives the best sense of how the space was meant to work.