Colombia Earthquake Fells Cathedral Tower, Kills Over 200
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, 10 August 2026, killing more than 200 people, damaging over 1,600 buildings and collapsing one of the side towers of the country's tallest church — the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Manizales (The Art Newspaper).
The quake hit at 7:34am local time at a depth of 103km, with its epicentre in San José del Palmar, a municipality in the Chocó department. The Servicio Geológico Colombiano, Colombia's geological survey, classified the instrumental intensity as "very strong" (Muy fuerte) on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale — a 12-level measure of shaking and damage — and recorded more than 45 aftershocks on the same day (The Art Newspaper; SGC).
President Abelardo de la Espriella, who had taken office just three days earlier on 7 August, declared a national emergency. Local governments in Manizales, Pereira and Cali imposed a curfew from Monday night until Tuesday morning (The Art Newspaper).
The cathedral — known locally as the Manizales Cathedral — stands 119m tall, making it the tallest church in Colombia. Built in the Neo-Gothic style with Byzantine-style arches, it was designed by French architect Julien Polti and constructed between 1928 and 1939. It replaced an earlier wooden cathedral destroyed by fires in 1925 and 1926. The building was a technical milestone for its time: reinforced concrete and imported steel, materials not previously available in Colombia, gave it the strength to soar to that height. Parish priest Adolfo Hoyos Ocampo championed the project and defended Polti's design against critics (The Art Newspaper).
Declared a national monument in 1984, the cathedral houses 141 stained-glass windows imported from France, Italy and the Netherlands. Gonzalo Duque-Escobar, a professor at the National University of Colombia and a Manizales native, told The Art Newspaper that the cathedral is the city's most visited attraction and a symbol of its architectural heritage (The Art Newspaper).
The damage extended well beyond Manizales. In Pereira, 53km to the south, the dome of the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (also known as the Church of Saint Joseph) fell onto its atrium. Archbishop Luis Fernando Rodríguez Velásquez reported damage in Cali to the Cathedral of Saint Peter the Apostle and the churches of La Merced, San Francisco and Santa Rosa de Lima (The Art Newspaper).
The Archdiocese of Manizales invited the faithful to unite in prayer following the partial collapse of the cathedral tower (ACI Prensa).
Early reports on the day of the quake counted at least 20 deaths; that figure rose steeply as rescue and assessment operations continued (EWTN News; The Art Newspaper).
