[2][3] The building was commissioned by the government of Peruvian President José Balta to the workshops of the Frenchman Gustave Eiffel, originally intended for the seaside town of Ancón, located north of the Peruvian capital of Lima.

The original church stood for 226 years until it was destroyed by an earthquake on August 13, 1868.

Because of this, a local women's committee asked then president José Balta for the construction of a new cathedral.

However, until the early twentieth century, the parish of Arica remained part of the diocese of Arequipa, according to the orders of the Holy See.

On February 27, 1910, the mayor of Arica, Maximo Lira, decreed the expulsion of Juan Vitaliano Berroa, parish priest of Arica and his assisting priest Juan Gualberto Guevara, being Peruvian, replacing them with Chilean military chaplains.