Pompallier House
Pompallier House is a 19th century building in Russell, New Zealand . At that time it was part of the headquarters of the Catholic Mission in the Western Pacific. It is named after Jean Baptiste Pompallier , the first Vicar Apostolic and first Bishop of New Zealand.
Pompallier House is a Category 1 Monument and owned by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust , which operates it as a museum. It is New Zealand's oldest Roman Catholic building, oldest rammed earth structure, and oldest industrial structure.
history
The property was purchased by Pompallier in 1839 to provide a seat for the French Marist Mission to New Zealand. The building was built between 1841 and 1842 using the rammed earth construction method that is common around Lyon in France, and the upper floor was built as a half-timbered structure. At the same time, compared to the timber construction customary in New Zealand at that time, a large part of the cost of construction timber was saved. The clay was extracted locally and mixed with sand and stones from the coast. Lime was burned from mussel shells. The work was supervised by the architect Louis Perret .
The building was used as a printing shop and there was also a tannery for the production of the covers. In 1842 the first translations of religious texts in the Māori language were printed here.
On the property there was a chapel, houses, kitchens and other outbuildings that have not been preserved.
In 1850 the headquarters of the mission was moved to Auckland . In 1856 James Callaghan took over the building and used it as a residence known as "Callaghan's Castle". After several changes of ownership, the New Zealand government bought the building in 1941. In the 1990s the house was restored and returned to its original condition.
The garden is designed in the Victorian and Edwardian styles of the previous owners.
Printing press
The Gaveaux printing press was imported from France by the Mission in the early 1840s. Between 1842 and 1849 over 30,000 books and treatises were printed on it, which were among the first to be printed in the Māori language. After the mission moved in 1857 , the Waikato Māori asked for the press. It was used by Māori king Tāwhiao to print the Māori-language newspaper Te Paki o Matariki . The press stayed in Waikato until the 1990s and was returned by Māori queen Te Atairangikaahu .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d McGill, David; Sheehan, Grant; Landmarks: Notable Historic Buildings of New Zealand , Phantom Books, Wellington 2005, ISBN 0-9582388-5-5 , p. 18
- ^ A b c NZ Historic Places Trust: Pompallier History
- ^ A b NZ Historic Places Trust: Printing Press
Web links
Coordinates: 35 ° 15 ′ 52.6 ″ S , 174 ° 7 ′ 19.2 ″ E