Argentine Cathedral Wins Title of World’s Most Beautiful Church: Here Are the Other Finalists
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in La Plata, Argentina, won the virtual 'Cathedral World Cup' competition. Competition was organized via Instagram and attracted thousands of votes worldwide. La Plata Cathedral defeated the Cathedral of Florence, Italy, securing 93% of the vote. Other finalists included renowned European cathedrals such as Notre-Dame of Paris and the Duomo of Milan.
24 days ago
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in La Plata, Argentina, won an Instagram-based “Cathedral World Cup,” defeating Florence Cathedral in the final with 93% of more than 54,000 votes. The result highlighted the Argentine cathedral’s distinctive Neo-Gothic design, historical importance, and strong visual appeal on social media.
The virtual competition was organized by the Instagram account @documentales_de_bolsillo, which invited users to vote for their favorite cathedrals from around the world.
La Plata Cathedral defeated Florence Cathedral in the final, receiving 93% of the vote, compared with 7% for its Italian rival. More than 54,000 users participated in the final round.
During the competition, the Argentine cathedral also surpassed several internationally recognized churches, including Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the Duomo of Milan, and Cologne Cathedral.
Located opposite Plaza Moreno, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is described as one of La Plata’s principal religious, historical, and architectural landmarks. Construction began in 1884, two years after the city was founded, and the cathedral was inaugurated in 1932.
The building rises 112 meters and was declared a National Historic Monument in 1997. Its design was conceived by architect and urban planner Pedro Benoit.
The cathedral is built primarily of brick, giving it a distinctive reddish appearance. Its façade includes arches, pinnacles, spires, sculptures, and large rose windows characteristic of Neo-Gothic architecture.
Although inspired by European Gothic cathedrals, the structure represents a Latin American interpretation of the style. The use of local brick rather than stone gives the building a visual identity associated with Argentina.
Inside, light passes through stained-glass windows and creates colored effects throughout the cathedral. The article presents the light, glass, architecture, and silence of the interior as central elements of the building’s religious and artistic character.
The article connects La Plata Cathedral’s success to the visual nature of the contest. Its recognizable silhouette and striking appearance make it highly effective in photographs, allowing viewers to appreciate its monumental features without specialized knowledge of architectural history.
The result does not establish that La Plata Cathedral is the oldest, most historically significant, or artistically most important church in the competition. Rather, the vote reflected the ability of its image to attract admiration and mobilize an online audience.
The article portrays cathedrals as buildings designed not only for practical use but also to direct attention upward through their towers, stained-glass windows, naves, and altars. It presents architectural beauty as a means of expressing Christian beliefs and pointing beyond the visible world.
Referencing Saint John Paul II’s Letter to Artists, the article states that beauty can awaken a longing for the infinite. It concludes that La Plata Cathedral’s broader significance lies in encouraging people to pause, contemplate, and wonder about the meaning of the building.
Assess Catholic aesthetic criteria that elevate La Plata Cathedral
La Plata Cathedral can be judged highly by Catholic aesthetic criteria—not merely because it is imposing, but because its architecture can serve as a visible theological language. Yet its true success depends on whether its beauty leads beyond admiration toward God and participation in the liturgy.
Its Gothic verticality, pointed forms, and towers direct the eye upward. This corresponds to a central Catholic criterion: sacred architecture should awaken awareness of the transcendent God rather than remain closed within ordinary human scale. Benedict XVI describes Gothic cathedrals as expressing the via pulchritudinis, the “way of beauty,” through which the human person approaches the mystery of God.
The upward movement is therefore not decorative alone. It symbolizes the soul’s orientation toward Christ, the true Light and “the true door.” A cathedral is elevated aesthetically when its structure makes transcendence perceptible.
Catholic beauty is not equivalent to ornament or expense. Benedict XVI warns against being dazzled merely by “gold or magnificence”; artistic labor should make the spirit luminous and lead it toward divine truth.
La Plata Cathedral is strongest aesthetically when its architectural forms, images, windows, and proportions work together as a coherent Christian whole. The criterion is not whether every element is spectacular, but whether the building’s visual language communicates creation, redemption, Christ, the Church, and eternal life.
Christian art is intrinsically symbolic: it refers beyond itself to the meaning, origin, and destiny of human existence. Thus the cathedral’s details should be read not as isolated embellishments but as parts of a symbolic environment.
Catholic aesthetics value both the created world and human intelligence. Benedict XVI praises sacred architecture that gathers together nature, human creativity, Scripture, and liturgy, overcoming the division between earthly life and openness to eternity.
La Plata Cathedral’s materials, light, stonework, glass, geometry, and craftsmanship can therefore be appreciated as a Christian transformation of natural and human realities. Its beauty is elevated when the building shows that matter is not opposed to spirit: created things can become signs of the Creator.
The decisive test is liturgical. A cathedral is not fundamentally a museum or civic monument; it is the bishop’s church and a place where the Eucharist is celebrated. The Pontifical Council for Culture teaches that the liturgy, especially the Eucharist, illuminates existence with meaning and beauty and makes the worshipper participate in Christ’s beauty.
Accordingly, La Plata Cathedral’s aesthetic value includes:
A magnificent exterior cannot compensate for an interior that distracts from the altar, obscures the rites, or turns worship into spectacle.
The Catholic criterion is ultimately ascetical and missionary. Beauty should produce wonder, silence, humility, and an “exit from self,” leading the person toward what is greater than the self. It should be gratuitous rather than self-advertising, and it should draw people away from selfishness toward hope and peace.
By this standard, La Plata Cathedral is elevated when its grandeur does not terminate in national pride, architectural admiration, or tourism, but opens the visitor to Christ, the Church, and the destiny of creation in God.
La Plata Cathedral satisfies important Catholic aesthetic criteria through its apparent Gothic aspiration, symbolic verticality, monumental craftsmanship, and capacity to make faith visible in public space. Its highest aesthetic achievement, however, is not its size or historical prestige. It lies in the harmony of truth, beauty, symbolism, and liturgy: the building is most authentically beautiful when it becomes a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem and a fitting setting for the Eucharistic worship of the Church.