The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (

Portuguese language Portuguese ( or ) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the official language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tom� ...

: Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Imaculada Conceição), commonly known as the Maputo Cathedral, is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

in downtown

Maputo Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

, the capital of

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. The cathedral is located on

Praça da Independência Praça da Independência ( English: Independence Square) is a public square and focal point of Maputo, Mozambique. It was built by the Portuguese as Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque (''Mouzinho de Albuquerque Square'') and was dominated by a statue o ...

(Independence Square) next to Hotel Rovuma and

Maputo City Hall Maputo City Hall or Municipal Council Building of Maputo (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Edifício do Conselho Municipal de Maputo'') is the seat of the local government of the capital of Mozambique. The Neoclassicism, neoclassical building ...

. It is dedicated to

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a ...

. The foundation stone for the construction of the church was laid on June 28, 1936, and is located inside the narthex and inscribed by the Bishop of Mozambique and Cape Verde, D. Rafael Maria da Asunção. Construction on the cathedral was completed in 1944. The cathedral was designed by the Portuguese civil engineer Marcial Simões de Freitas e Costa, then a railway director. He designed the church pro bono for the Archdiocese of Lourenço Marques. Freitas was inspired by the simple style and building materials of church construction in Europe of the time; the cathedral was ultimately built of concrete and cement. He was inspired to buildings such as the Notre-Dame du Raincy in

Le Raincy Le Raincy () is a prestigious communes of France, commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. Le Raincy is a subprefecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis departments of France, department and ...

(1921-1923) by

Auguste Perret Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...

and Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Fátima (1934-1938) in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, built by Pardal Monteiro. The simplicity and the choice of new materials was also a result of financial problems of the period.

References

* Buildings and structures in Maputo Tourist attractions in Maputo Roman Catholic cathedrals in Mozambique Roman Catholic churches completed in 1944 1940s establishments in Mozambique 1944 establishments in Africa 1944 establishments in the Portuguese Empire Portuguese colonial architecture in Mozambique 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings {{Mozambique-RC-church-stub