La Ermita Church

A small chapel stood here from the colonial period holding an image of the Senor de la Caña, a Christ figure found by a farmworker in a sugarcane field, which drew local devotion. An earthquake in 1925 wrecked the old building and the replacement, finished in 1948, is neo-Gothic in blue and white with a slender spire, the design taken from Ulm Minster in Germany rather than from any local tradition. It sits directly on the river bank in the middle of the city and has become the visual shorthand for Cali. The original image and a colonial altarpiece were kept and are inside. It is small, with a single nave, and the interior is far plainer than the exterior suggests.

What you actually see

• A neo-Gothic church of 1948 - modelled on a German minster.
• Blue and white with a slender spire - the city's visual shorthand.
• The Senor de la Cana image - kept from the colonial chapel.
• A riverside position - directly on the Cali river.

When to go

Year round. Half an hour.

Honest expectations

The interior is small and much plainer than the outside. Opening hours are short and tied to services. The surrounding streets are busy with traffic. It is a photo stop more than a visit.

Nearby

San Antonio hill is south-west; the cat sculptures line the river north.