Santa Lucía Church, Maracaibo

The Santa Lucía Church (Iglesia de Santa Lucía)—formally the Ecclesiastical Parish of Santa Lucía—is a Roman Catholic parish church in the historic El Empedrao neighbourhood of Maracaibo, Zulia state, Venezuela. Built between 1867 and 1876, it is the only Gothic Revival church erected in the city during the 19th century. The temple grew out of a group of parishioners who had been meeting in private homes since 1834 to plan a church dedicated to Saint Lucy of Syracuse; construction was eventually ordered by the President of Zulia, General Venancio Pulgar. The building was thoroughly restored in the 20th century by Father José Luis Castellanos with funds raised entirely from the congregation. The church is one of the city's most prominent religious buildings. It is the seat of the local devotion to Saint Lucy—patroness of sight and the throat—which is the most widely observed in Maracaibo after that to Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá. The parish also hosts devotions to Our Lady of the Nativity (its co-patroness, introduced in the late 19th century) and to Saint Benedict the Moor of Calle Delgado.

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).