Melbourne Chat

in 1801 the colonial secretary of victoria granted the Catholic church a block of land in the eastern hill area. william wardell was commissioned to prepare plans, but the project was delayed by labour shortages during the gold rush of the early 1850's, and the foundation stone was not laid until 1858.



the bluestone cathedral was a huge and very expensive undertaking, and there were long delays while funds were raised. it was 1897 before the Cathedral was consecrated, and even then it was not finished. daniel mannix, who became archbishop of melbourne in 1917, was determined to see the building finished after the delays of the previous 30 years. he oversaw the addition of the spires in the late 1930's. the building was officially completed in 1939. it is a splendid example of the gothic revival style, a style that was at the height of its popularity in the 19th century, and was based on the great mediæval cathedrals of England.



the cathedral is built on a traditional east-west axis, with the altar at the eastern end. it is an imposing building, 103.6 metres long and, at its widest point, 56.4 metres wide. the central spire is 105 metres high and the flanking towers and spires are 61.9 metres high.



st patrick's underwent a restoration in 1997 to celebrate the centenary of its consecration.



together with sydney's st mary's cathederal, st patrick's is the closest thing that australia has to the great cathederals of britain and europe. incidentally, wardell also designed st mary's cathedral, which is similar in style, although st mary's cathederal was constructed using a golden coloured sandstone. the similarities don't end there, either, as st mary's cathederal was without spires until the late 1980's, when they were added to complete the building as part of a bicentennial project.













st patrick's cathederal before the completion of its towers



[url="http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictures/0/0/0/im/pi000648.jpg"]

[/url][url="http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictures/0/0/0/im/pi000648.jpg"]

[/url]

st patrick's cathederal in the 1930's after completion of its towers



the official website is located at: [url="http://www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/cathedral/"]http://www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/cathedral/[/url]

hi helen! i was there today!!! very nice church indeed!



cheers, glen <img src='http://www.melbournechat.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

yes, a very nice church. for some reason that i can't quite put my finger on, i found it a more inviting building than st mary's cathedral, which although it looks very nice on the outside, has always struck me as rather cold and impersonal inside.

Yep i would agree with that!



Another nice one in melbourne is st francis on lonsdale st.



A bit further out of town is Melbourne's only basilica. It is in the suburb of Camberwell and is called "Our Lady of Victories".



[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Victories_Basilica_(Camberwell)"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_V...ca_(Camberwell)[/url]



[url="http://www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/parishes/parishdetail.asp?parish_id=382"]http://www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/paris...p?parish_id=382[/url]

(ignore the photo here as it is a different church! it is st pat's....not the basilica)