Old St Stephens Church, Gothic Revival church in Brisbane, Australia
Old St Stephens Church is a sandstone building in Brisbane with a rectangular nave, square chancel, and pointed lancet windows. The structure follows English designs for small churches and retains its original configuration from the period of construction.
The church opened in 1850 and served as Brisbane's cathedral beginning in 1859 until the growing Catholic population needed a larger building. It marks the beginning of organized Catholic presence in the city.
The chapel is also called the Pugin Chapel, after architect Augustus Pugin, a friend of Archbishop Bede Polding. Since 1999 the apse has held a shrine to Saint Mary MacKillop, and the movable furniture is arranged for weddings, spiritual talks and sacred music. A west window shows Christ and the story of St Stephen.
The chapel stands at the front of the site at 249 Elizabeth Street, facing the street and just south of the cathedral, within a grassy area of palm rows and concrete paths laid out in the 1989 renovation. The entrance is at the west end, below the perpendicular window, and the interior is entered through a square porch at the south-west of the nave.
The soft sandstone of the small belfry crumbled so badly that it was dismantled before 1875; a temporary timber belfry by architect A. B. Wilson replaced it in 1888. The west window's original stone tracery was later replaced in wood, and the roof shingles gave way to slate.
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