Right on Plaza de Mayo, the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral might not look like a house of worship at first behind a sober off-white neoclassical facade more suggestive of a government building or library. But, this is where Pope Francis, then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, served as Archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2013. Inside, the decor is largely Neo Renaissance and Neo Baroque with elaborate frescoes adorning the walls, Venetian-style mosaics on the floor, an 1871 Walcker organ with more than 3,500 pipes, a gilt wood altarpiece dating from 1785 and an imposing mausoleum, the resting place of General de San Martin, who led the Argentine forces that defeated the Spanish in the struggle for independence.

catedralbuenosaires.org.ar