St. Mary's Cathedral in
Calgary,
Alberta,
Canada is a
Roman Catholic cathedral. The building’s full name is
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
History
St. Mary’s began as a sandstone church in 1889, built near the Elbow River on land provided by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The area was called the
Mission District, due to the settlement of
Father Albert Lacombe in the area in 1884. The original Catholic mission was called Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix. The land was used to establish a French speaking incorporated village called
Rouleauville, which subsequently became overwhelmingly English and was annexed by Calgary in 1907 (making St. Mary's part of Calgary). The same land obtained by Lacombe was also used to build
St. Mary's School nearby.
When the Diocese of Calgary was formed on November 30, 1912 by
Pope Pius X,
St. Mary’s became the Cathedral as the seat of the Bishop.
Demolition of the sandstone cathedral began on July 21, 1955, and on October 30, 1955 the cornerstone for the Cathedral was laid. Construction was completed in February 1957, and was officially consecrated on December 11, 1957 by the Most Reverend Francis P. Carroll, Bishop of Calgary.
- Architects: Maxwell Bates and Alfred Hodges
- Engineer: Jan Bobrowski and Partners
- Contractor: Bird Construction Company Ltd.
- Cost: $1,000,000 CAD
The cathedral is built in a
modern gothic style. The floor plan is a
St. Anthony's Cross (T or
Tau-shaped) rather than...
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