I'm not a religious person, well, not anymore, I was bought up as a Catholic, but like most of the people I know from childhood that wouldn't be a apt description anymore, but I do still like a church, for many reasons, the architecture, the granduer, but also the feeling that they have within them, I can appreciate that these are important buildings to people, important places of worship and they should be treated respectfully.
So when I found myself with a couple of hours to kill last week I walked past Melbourne's largest Catholic Cathedral (I'm told it's officially a minor basilica, I mean let's not get carried away) I figured why not take some photos
Let's start outside - First thing you'll notice is the use of bluestone - many old buildings (and laneways) in Melbourne are built in bluestone This particular bluestone comes from Footscray, Construction started in 1858 - and in the tradition of churches somehow wasn't finished until 1939.
The spires are probably what stands out - the main one is 105 metres high, which is about the height of a 30 storey building. The two at the front about 61 metres
I also enjoy the gargoyles around the building.
And here is the entrance to one of the side doors
Now I normally feel like a bit of an idiot walking around the inside of a church taking photos, it feels a little disrespectful, but I decided to go in anyway, and really there were about 5 people inside all tourists so I wasn't disturbing anyone actually praying.
I'm glad I did - I haven't been inside this church since I was about 16 or so when we were forced to go a number of times, and I'd forgotten how nice it is. Being Gothic revival in style it's all wonderful, Disney like arches intersecting all over thew shop.
The volumes of this place are immense, not European Cathedral big, but big enough, although I have to admite it is a weird design, a cross, which is simple enough but the alter is basically in the middle with all sorts of stuff behind it.
Although that does give you the ability to take photos from behind the alter which is nice
One of the most impressive part of the cathedral is Pipe organ, taking up most of the one of the flanks, Wikipedia tells me parts of this are from the 1890's and parts from the 1960's, but whatever it is it is very cool.
And then slow laps of the inside of the church done it was back outside again and on my way of through my life as a atheist or is it an agnostic?
