In the 1870s the construction of the new church was reconsidered, thanks to the interest of Emperor Pedro II and his daughter, Isabel, Princess Imperial.

The project was commissioned from the Bahian engineer and architect Francisco Caminhoá, who designed a Neo-Gothic style building, very fashionable at the time, especially inspired by the old cathedrals of northern France.

The work was carried out by the contractor Manuel Pereira Jerônimo, son of one of the first families to settle in the city, coming from Pico Island in the Azores.

Under the command of engineer Heitor da Silva Costa the work entered into a second phase of intense activity in 1918.

In 1920 the decree banning the Brazilian Imperial Family was annulled and in 1921 the remains of Emperor Pedro II and his wife, Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, were brought from the Royal Pantheon of the House of Braganza in Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, where they were housed in the old Metropolitan Cathedral.

In the place of the tympanum there is a Calvary (Crucified Christ, the Virgin and Joseph of Arimathea), and in the upper part of the façade are statues of the four evangelists (St. Mark, St. Luke, St. John and St. Matthew).

The tower, the most recent element of the church (1960s), rises 70 meters above the ground and contains a chime of five cast bronze bells in Passau, Germany weighing nine tons.

In the ambulatory there is a huge statue of the patron of the cathedral and monarchy, St. Peter of Alcantara, carved in Carrara marble by Frenchman Jean Magrou (c.1925).