Church of Our Lady of Lourdes
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The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes (Chinese: 露德圣母堂) is a Catholic church in Singapore. It is located at Ophir Road in the Rochor Planning Area, within the Central Area in Singapore's central business district.
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[edit] History
The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes was constructed in 1888. This is the first Tamil Catholic church in Singapore. Its design is modelled after the original church at Lourdes, France.
Many architectural historians attribute this building to Swan & Maclaren, but it was more probably designed by a priest architect, such as Father Nain, as many other Catholic buildings in Singapore were at the time. It could not have been executed by Swan & Maclaren, to whom it is often attributed, as the partnership was not formed until 1893, at which time the building was completed. More than likely the plans were submitted by A.W. Lermit of Swan & Lermit.
Today, the Church is still largely used for the purpose for which it was built, i.e. as a worshipping place for Tamil Catholics.
The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes was gazetted as a national monument on 14 January 2005.
[edit] Architecture
The Church is a neo-Gothic building of good proportions and fine details and is said to have been modelled on its namesake building in the town of Lourdes in France. Unfortunately, for some time it was sadly in need of care and maintenance and the Church was also somewhat eclipsed by the addition of a new school building, Our Lady of Lourdes English School, on the same grounds.
Its brightly coloured redecoration of reds, greys and yellows, in late 1982, was considered by many to have been unfortunate, however, in early 1986, renovation was carried out on the building, which was redecorated with a sympathetic coating of white paint and the doors were highlighted quite subtly with two shades of blue.
[edit] References
- Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1988), Singapore - A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places, Times Books International, ISBN 9971-65-231-5
- Wan Meng Hao (2005), Know Our Monuments [1], Preservation of Monuments Board
