St Mary's Cathedral

St Mary's Cathedral stands in Cape Town as South Africa’s oldest Catholic cathedral and the mother church of its Roman Catholic archdiocese. Its Gothic Revival design comes from architect Carl Otto Hager. Bishop Patrick Raymond Griffith bought the land in 1839, and builders laid the first stone two years later. Consecration followed on 28 April 1851, linking the building to the early history of Catholicism in Southern Africa. The church became a cathedral in 1951, when Pope Pius XII established Cape Town as a metropolitan archdiocese.

Fred M. Glennie reshaped the building in 1927 with Bavarian Arts and Crafts changes, adding a tower and altering the roof. Italian marble now forms the altar, while a solid silver tabernacle replaced the original arrangement in 1947. Seventeen stained-glass windows came from Mayer of Munich and Bardman of Birmingham. Oak panels carved by Spanish artist F Cuairan honour parishioners who died during the Second World War, while Tweedie carved the elaborate oak pulpit in Cape Town. A 1997 restoration brought back parts of the original Victorian stencilled paintwork, leaving colour and craftsmanship visible alongside the cathedral’s long architectural history.