ST PATRICK'S, EAST MELBOURNE

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne has quite an interesting background. The Cathedral was proposed to be built in 1847, only 12 years after the establishment of Melbourne, and an area of land in the Eastern Hill area was granted by the Colonial Secretary of Victoria for its construction. The Cathedral was devoted to St. Patrick, a saint of Ireland, as a majority of Catholics in Melbourne at that time were Irish.

The construction of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne, designed by William Wardell, took a long time to start due to several obstacles like the lack of labour during the Gold Rush of the 1850s. Almost 11 years after the proposal, the foundation stones were finally laid in 1858. The central area of the church was completed within 10 years but soon after that, work progressed at a very slow pace mainly due to the misery that struck Melbourne in 1891. The construction of the main part of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne was finally over in 1897. Daniel Mannix, who became Archbishop of Melbourne in 1917, maintained a constant interest in the cathedral, which he was determined to see finished after the long delays during the previous 30 years. He oversaw the addition of the spires and other elements in the late 1930s. The building was officially completed in 1939.

The Cathedral  is famous because of its grand and awe-inspiring architecture which is in the Gothic Revival Style. This style refers to the imitation of the technique of church building in the middle ages and which was most admired in Europe and America in the late 19th century, spurring the construction of gothic revival structures. The central area of the church is designed in the early English style while the rest of the building is more geometrical identifying with the later Gothic style.

This post is part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.