St Mary's Cathedral of the Assumption
Dark volcanic-stone cathedral in Kingstown, remodelled from 1919 in a mixture of historic styles.
A Roman Catholic church was first raised on this site in Grenville Street in 1823, in the years after Catholic worship became lawful on the island, and a more substantial building followed from the 1860s. The present appearance dates largely from the work of Dom Charles Verbeke, a Belgian Benedictine with architectural training who served the parish from 1919 until the 1940s. He recast and extended the church in dark local volcanic stone, adding wings in 1930 as the congregation grew.
The result draws freely on Romanesque, Gothic, Moorish, Byzantine, Venetian and Flemish models, with arcaded galleries, turrets, pointed arches and a cloistered courtyard that sets it apart from anything else in Kingstown. The adjoining presbytery and school buildings were treated in the same manner. The church is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kingstown, which covers Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and remains in regular parish use.
Highlights
- Built in dark volcanic stone quarried on the island
- Remodelled from 1919 by the Belgian Benedictine Dom Charles Verbeke
- Mixture of Romanesque, Gothic, Moorish and Flemish detail
- Seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kingstown
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