Basílica de Higüey

Higüey is the country's main place of pilgrimage, and the church built for it between the 1950s and 1970s is nothing like what a visitor to a Caribbean town expects. Designed by two French architects who won an international competition, it is a long hall of bare concrete under a series of parabolic arches that rise to a point at the west end, more than seventy metres high, framing the entrance like a vast pointed doorway. Inside, the concrete is left raw and the light falls in slabs through coloured glass. It holds the image of Our Lady of Altagracia, brought in the sixteenth century, and the pilgrimage on the twenty-first of January brings enormous crowds.

What you actually see

• The parabolic arches - concrete ribs rising to a seventy-metre point.
• The interior light - coloured glass across raw concrete.
• The image of Altagracia - the sixteenth-century painting behind the altar.
• The pilgrimage - on 21 January, the country's largest religious gathering.

When to go

November to April is drier. The pilgrimage day on 21 January fills the town completely and is extraordinary but crowded beyond comfort. Otherwise the basilica is quiet and takes half an hour. Midday light through the glass is strongest.

Honest expectations

Higüey itself is a workaday town with little else for visitors, and the drive from Punta Cana passes through unremarkable country. On pilgrimage day the crowds are dense and the town is gridlocked. Dress codes apply at the door. Some visitors find raw concrete unlovely.

Nearby

Punta Cana is 45 minutes east; Bayahíbe is an hour south.