Sao Paulo Cathedral

Sao Paulo Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

Entry to the cathedral is free. The crypt below, with the tombs of the archbishops and of the indigenous chief Tibirica who helped found the city, charges a token sum and is entered from inside. Guided tours are offered by the parish at set times and cost little. City walking tours of the historic centre include the cathedral and cost several times that; the area around Praca da Se is busy and requires the usual big-city attention to belongings, which is why many visitors prefer a guide.

The cathedral is directly above the Se metro station, where two lines cross, so reaching it is trivial from anywhere in the city. Day trips to the far larger basilica at Aparecida, two hours away, are sold from Sao Paulo and are a different proposition entirely. The cathedral runs a small shop selling devotional items, and the parish publishes the mass times on a board by the main door.

Visiting Sao Paulo Cathedral: what to see

Sao Paulo grew from a Jesuit mission of 1554 into a city of twenty million, and its cathedral kept pace: the present building, begun in 1913 and consecrated in 1954 for the city's four hundredth anniversary, is one of the largest neo-Gothic churches in the world, 111 metres long with room for eight thousand people. Maximilian Emil Hehl, a German architect teaching in Sao Paulo, designed it with twin spires nearly a hundred metres high and a Renaissance dome over the crossing, a combination that architectural writers have never quite forgiven.

The capitals inside are carved with Brazilian coffee branches, pineapples and armadillos instead of European acanthus. The organ, built in Italy in 1954, has around twelve thousand pipes. The cathedral has been the stage for the political life of the city, including the 1984 rallies for direct elections. The rose window over the west front is nearly eight metres across, and the bronze doors were cast in Italy with panels showing the history of the Brazilian church.

Sao Paulo Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from morning to evening, with masses through the day and the tourist route pausing during them. Praca da Se is safest and most pleasant in the middle of a weekday; the surrounding streets empty and change character after dark and at weekends. Sao Paulo's climate is mild and wet, with heavy rain from December to March. The interior is dim and vast. Dress is informal.

Photography without flash is allowed. Allow forty minutes with the crypt. The Patio do Colegio, where the Jesuits founded the city, is a five-minute walk, and the Municipal Market with its famous mortadella sandwiches is fifteen minutes north. Free walking tours of the centre start from the cathedral steps on most mornings and are the easy way to see the surrounding streets safely.