First Church of Otago

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First Church of Otago

The First Church of Otago , also simply called First Church for short , is a church of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand . The church was built in the city center of Dunedin , Otago on a plateau of a former hill and was completed in 1875 after seven years of construction. The church was opened in 1873.

Naming

The name First Church of Otago or First Church originally only referred to the parish that was formed shortly after the arrival of the Scottish settlers of the Free Church of Scotland in Otago in 1848 and the founding of Dunedin in the same year. The parish was the only religious community in the province of Otago for several years. Until the construction of the church, which still exists today, there were two church buildings that were built one after the other in different places from wood. After the completion of the stone-built churches on Moray Place , the name of the parish was adopted for the church building at some point.

history

The church building was built by the Scottish- born and later New Zealand-based architect Robert Lawson . But before Lawson was awarded the contract, another version of the church under WH Monson was planned in 1857 . The realization of the 500-seat building did not materialize and so it was to take until January 1862 for a tender for a competition to build the church. Lawson submitted six designs under the pseudonym " Presbyter ", won the bid and moved from Melbourne to Dunedin to do the construction for a price of £ 12,000 New Zealand . But the cost would later rise to £ 20,000.

In order to be able to erect the church in the center of the city on a plateau, the top of a hill was removed by hundreds of convicts by a good 12 meters and used to reclaim land in the harbor basin. The foundation stone of the church was laid on May 15, 1868 by Thomas Burns , pastor, colonialist and co-founder of Dunedin. But Burns, as pastor of the church, did not live to see the building completed; he died in January 1871. Although the church opened on November 23, 1873, it took until 1875 for final completion. Shortly before the opening of the church, the architect Larson discovered that the tower was about 4.50 meters too short. He had the spire removed and rebuilt at the required height.

Due to heavy weathering of the limestone , parts of the building were repaired and strengthened as early as the 1950s, but the main restoration work on the structure did not take place until 1991 to 1992, after a nationwide appeal for donations raised NZ $ 1.5 million .

Building

building

The more than 56 meters (185 feet) high building was built in Norman - Gothic built style. The foundation of the building is made of stone from the Port Chalmers area , while the rest of the building is made of the cream-colored Oamaru stone , which was used for many similar structures at the time. The tower of the church is slim and lined with various turrets, spiers and gables.

inner space

When the church opened, the interior consisted of a whole room. The walls were white and the wooden roof was pale blue on the inside. Four years later, a gallery with a further 170 seats was built into the interior at the main entrance. Locals noticed at that time that the wood had improved the acoustics in the church. A total of around 1000 visitors can be seated in the church today. The pulpit and the baptismal font are made of stone with engravings that were carried out by Louis John Godfrey (1834-1919), among other interior and exterior decorations .

Peal

12 bells were built into the tower, which can be operated via a keyboard . Eight of these bells, on the other hand, can be made to ring in the traditional way by so-called change-ringers of the church, who have organized themselves in a Society of Change-ringers , using a rope to be pulled vertically according to a special ritual. This makes the First Church of Otago the only presbytery outside of Great Britain in which this art is still practiced.

organ

The first organ in the church was a water organ , also called a hydraulis. It was built into the gallery above the entrance in 1889. The first pipe organ came in 1908 and replaced the old organ in the same place. The pipe organ was modified in the 1930s and 1960s. The Allen company’s electronic organ, which is still in use today , was installed in 1982.

Web links

Commons : First Church of Otago  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The First Church of Otago . In: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand . Otago and Southland Provincial District - Volume IV . Cyclopedia Company Ltd , Christchurch 1905, p.  175 (English, online [accessed February 22, 2011]).
  2. ^ Gavin McLean: Dunedin - History, Heritage & Wildlife . Ed .: University of Otago Press. Dunedin 2003, ISBN 1-877276-61-8 , pp. 24 (English).
  3. ↑ a b Heritage. First Church of Otago, accessed February 22, 2011 .

Coordinates: 45 ° 52 ′ 33.6 ″  S , 170 ° 30 ′ 16.9 ″  O