St. Mary's Cathedral in Kilkenny
The Mary's Cathedral of Kilkenny ( Irish Ard-Eaglais Mhuire , English : St. Mary's Cathedral or with full name: Cathedral Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary ) is the episcopal church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ossory , which has its seat in Kilkenny . The foundation stone was laid on August 18, 1843, and the inauguration took place on October 4, 1857 .
Geographical location
St. Mary 's Cathedral is built on the highest point in Kilkenny, opposite the second highest hill with the 13th century Saint Cainnech Cathedral , which has been part of the Church of Ireland since the Reformation . The location of St. Mary's Cathedral was outside the city walls in the Middle Ages. In the 18th century there was a chapel, also consecrated to Mary , directly outside the Sankt-Jakob-Tor , parts of which have been preserved to this day.
history
The foundation stone was laid by Bishop William Kinsella (term of office 1829-1845) on August 18, 1843. The cathedral was built under the direction of the architect William Deane Butler († 1857) in a comparatively hard and angular neo-Gothic style using local gray limestone . From the outside, the building is dominated by the extraordinarily high tower, the height of which is further emphasized by the location of the cathedral on the highest elevation. The cathedral is a striking point of view from all sides of the city. The height of the tower has also been criticized in contemporary comments. One explanation for the disproportion between the height of the tower and the length of the nave could be the shortening of the main nave by an arcade.
In 1845, when Kinsella died, the walls were only two meters high. His successor Edward Walsh (term of office 1846–1872) continued the work, even during the devastating famine in Ireland . On October 4, 1857, the cathedral was consecrated by him, with relics of the holy twin brothers Cosmas and Damian placed under the high altar . The construction costs amounted to a total of 25,000 pounds .
Although services could already be held after the inauguration , various interior work still had to be done. The organ was installed in 1866. At the end of the 19th century, the altar dedicated to the Sacred Heart was constructed by James Pearse, Patrick Pearse's father . James Pearse was considered one of the best Irish sculptors at the time .
architecture
The church has a cruciform floor plan with a choir on the west side, the nave on the east side and two transepts, south and north of the crossing . The main nave is equipped with two side aisles , each separated by five arcades. The relationship between the relatively narrow width of the main nave and the ample height is similar to that of Saint Fir Barre Cathedral in Cork . The very large east window was partially covered by the installation of the organ.
The choir is in the shape of an apse with nine windows at the top, facing north, west and south, and three smaller windows at the bottom, opening to the west. The stained glass was done by Early & Powell, the patterned choir vault was painted by Westlake of London. The floor, which was provided with mosaics by Bourke of London, shows the emblems of the four evangelists .
literature
- John Bradley: The Early Development of the Medieval Town of Kilkenny. In: Kilkenny: History and Society , edited by William Nolan and Kevin Whelan, Geography Publications, Dublin 1990, ISBN 0-906602-13-0 , pp. 63-73.
- Peter Galloway: The Cathedrals of Ireland. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast 1992, ISBN 0-85389-452-3 .
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d Cf. Galloway, p. 133.
- ↑ See Bradley, p. 69.
- ↑ CO. KILKENNY, KILKENNY, JAMES'S STREET, CATHEDRAL OF ST MARY (RC). Irish Architectural Archive, accessed July 30, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c cf. Galloway, p. 134.
- ↑ The captions for this cathedral on pages 133 and 134 are wrong because the author overlooked the fact that the choir of the Marienkathedrale is in the west and the nave in the east.
Coordinates: 52 ° 39 ′ 9 ″ N , 7 ° 15 ′ 25 ″ W.