Lame. City of Churches. Lame!
It sounds terrible. It looks terrible on paper. But when you have a Cathedral like this in a city as tiny as ours, you can't remain terribly angry at the old moniker. Of course, according to my understanding, MOST cities have a Roman Catholic cathedral. And I can't tell you how this one stacks up against any others. But I CAN tell you it's one of the prettiest buildings in Adelaide.
The St Francis Xavier Cathedral is mainly a destination to soak up in a little personal melodrama. Nothing beats Gothic architecture. Nothing. Except bulldozers. And maybe natural disasters. But there aren't a lot of natural disasters in Adelaide, and I don't think they'll be bulldozing this baby anytime soon, which means this grand display of the Neo-Gothic is pretty darn powerful.
It feels jolly well marvelous to stand in the centre of the great hall and (preferably when there isn't a great lot of witnesses standing around) spread your arms wide to rotate about and soak up the atmosphere. For a gentleman like myself, who, were he NOT a Christian, would have no reason to visit churches and, WERE he a Christian, wouldn't see that his worship was any better conducted within a church than without it, this place is all about the atmosphere.
And to that end, it provides. read more