Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch
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The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch, New Zealand, commonly known as the Christchurch Basilica, [1] was designed by architect Francis Petre. Begun in 1901, it replaced a smaller wooden church designed by Benjamin Mountfort that had been in use since 1864. The cathedral was officially opened on 12 February 1905, a mere four years after construction began. Today the building, said by some to be based on the 19th-century Church of Vincent-de-Paul, in Paris,[2] is held to be the finest renaissance style building in New Zealand and the most outstanding of all Petre's many designs.[3]
Forsaking 19th century Gothic, Petre designed the new church in a Renaissance, Italian basilica style, with one major exception. Ignoring Renaissance convention, Petre obtained a greater visual impact by siting the Italianate green copper-roofed dome not above the cross section of the church (as in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome), but directly above the sanctuary. In Petre's opinion, this design element, coupled with the Byzantine apse, added extra grandeur and theatre to the high altar set in the tribune. The nave and chancel roofs were supported by colonnades of ionic columns and the entrance facade of the cathedral was flanked by twin towers in the manner of many of Europe's great renaissance churches.
While often likened to St. Paul's Cathedral in London, it is conceivable that the greatest influence behind this structure was Benoit Haffreingue. During Petre's formative years, Haffreingue had been the driving force of the reconstruction of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Boulogne-sur-Mer, a French cathedral that has a very similar plan to that of The Blessed Sacrament, including the controversial siting of the dome over the altar rather than the centre of the cathedral.
The Cathedral, constructed of concrete sheathed in Oamaru limestone, [4] was widely acclaimed, causing the famous author George Bernard Shaw to describe Petre as a "New Zealand Brunelleschi". Fifty men were employed on the site, and in excess of 120,000 cubic ft (3400 m³) of stone, 4000 cubic ft (110 m³) of concrete, and 90 tons of steel were used in the construction. Problems with finding suitable stone for the construction of such a large structure caused financial difficulties during the construction, and a special bill was pushed through parliament by then Premier Richard Seddon in order to aid with the financing of the building. The total cost to the Roman Catholic diocese was £52,000.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Catholic Diocese of Christchurch retrieved 7 May 2008.
- archINFORM Based on the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Volume Two (1870-1900), 1993) retrieved 7 May 2008.
