7 Best Sights in El Norte Chico, Chile

With its central location in the beautiful Plaza de Armas, this imposing cathedral—the largest church in La Serena—is a great place to start your city tour. French architect Jean Herbage built the behemoth using stone from the Soldado mine in 1844 in the so-called Serena style of arches and columns, but it wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that the bell tower was added. The church is open to the public.

English architect William Rogers built this neoclassical church facing the central square in the middle of the 19th century. Check out the silver tabernacle and image of the Virgen del Rosario at the altar.

A huge steeple tops this 1909 church facing the central square. It has some pretty ceiling paintings and an image of the Virgen del Carmen carried by Chilean troops during the War of the Pacific. The wooden, fire-engine-red Torre Bauer, next to the church, was prefabricated in Germany.

One of La Serena's oldest churches, Iglesia San Francisco has a Baroque facade and thick stone walls. The exact date of the church's construction is not known, as the city archives were destroyed in 1680, but it's estimated that the structure was built sometime between 1585 and 1627. The church is open to the public.

This red-and-white candy cane of a church was built in 1872, and although it looks as if it's made of cement, it's actually constructed of Oregon pine. The adjacent Plaza Godoy has a statue of woodcutter Juan Godoy, who accidentally discovered huge silver deposits in nearby Chañarcillo in 1832, prompting thousands of people to move to the region to ignite the great silver boom of the day.

On the Plaza de Armas, this church, constructed in 1849, is worth a visit if religious tourism is your thing. Its bells were made in the Chilean port town of Valparaíso in 1877, and although damaged by an earthquake in 1997, the church was completely restored in 2002 and remains open.

This impressive church was built in 1673 and then rebuilt after a pirate attack in 1755. Its Italian Renaissance–style facade is eye-catching, and its best feature is the elegant bell tower.