Basilica of the National Vow

Image: Wikimedia Commons

When Ecuador consecrated itself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1873, Father Julio Matovelle proposed in 1883 that the vow be carved in stone, and the French architect Emilio Tarlier, inspired by Notre-Dame de Paris, designed the largest neo-Gothic church in the Americas. The first stone was laid in 1892, the consecration came only in 1988, and local legend insists the basilica must never be quite finished, for its completion would mean the end of the world. Look up at the spires and you find no medieval monsters: instead of gargoyles, condors, iguanas, armadillos and Galápagos tortoises leap from the stone, Ecuador's own creation praising its Creator. The twin towers rise some 115 meters and can be climbed, rewarding the brave with the Andes on the horizon and, below, the colonial old town of Quito, the first city ever inscribed by UNESCO.