El Salvador: San Salvador – Metropolitan Cathedral
Compared to relative shabbiness of everything else in the San Salvador city center, the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador stands strikingly impressive, massive, and polished. Originally built here in 1842, it was thrice rebuilt almost completely, with the latest iteration completed in 1999. The church is simply humongous inside and out and architecturally very distinct from all the colonial churches in El Salvador. The two connected towers in front are connecting over a huge entrance that leads to the interior with enormous dome and column. The lavishness of the interior is also striking, especially compared to poverty outside (a classic story of Latin America where Catholicism has managed to built gilded palaces of worship and reverence while siphoning money out of the population. Pope John Paul II visited the cathedral twice, and Obama was here once, and Trump was never here.
