Las Lajas Cathedral

Las Lajas Cathedral was built in 1916 inside the canyon of the Guaitara river where, according to local legend, the Virgin Mary appeared.

The church is of Gothic revival architecture and was built from January 1, 1916 to August 20, 1949, with donations from local churchgoers, replacing an old nineteenth-century chapel. The name Laja comes from the name of a type of flat sedimentary rock similar to floor tiles found in the Andes Mountains. There was a claim that an apparition of the Virgin Mary was seen. The a miraculous image on the stone is still visable today.