Catedral Basílica de la Inmaculada Concepción

The Catedral Basílica de la Inmaculada Concepción is the main church of Mazatlán and the seat of the Diocese of Mazatlán, on Calle 21 de Marzo in the historic centre, facing Plazuela República beside the Palacio Municipal and a block from the Mercado Pino Suárez. Its two tall yellow towers are a landmark of the old town. The church is part of the zone of historic monuments declared in 2001 and is described as the most outstanding work of 19th-century architecture in the centre.

Work began in the mid-1850s, ordered by Bishop Pedro Loza y Pardavé and later carried on by the parish priest Miguel Lacarra, with Estanislao León as architect. The first public mass was said on 7 May 1880, while building went on, and on 7 May 1899 the church was consecrated and its altars blessed, with leading families of the port as godparents. It was consecrated as a basilica on 12 December 1941, and in 1958 Pope John XXIII made it the cathedral of the new diocese of Mazatlán. The style mixes the late-19th-century fashions of neo-Gothic, baroque and neoclassical: two-tiered towers topped with crosses, an octagonal dome with a lantern and iron cross, and three naves of equal height inside.

The interior is the reason to step in. Gilded altarpieces, Carrara marble, painted ceilings and a Holy Trinity fresco surround the main altar and the image of the Immaculate Conception, and fourteen European sculptures, possibly Italian, line the side walls as the Stations of the Cross. A large chandelier hangs in the nave, the side aisles have French cut-glass lamps installed in 1950, and a glass dome shows the burial of Christ. The great organ was built in Paris by the workshop of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and first played on 17 May 1899. Visitors often look for the Star of David in the upper windows, an unusual detail in a Catholic church. The tomb of Bishop Miguel García Franco is inside, and a statue of Christ stands in the atrium.