The Rose Historic Chapel, formerly the St Mary's Convent Chapel, is a heritage-listed stone former

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

located in Colombo Street in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, New Zealand. It is registered as a "Historic Place – Category II " by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. The building was designed in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

and erected in 1910.

History

The first Bishop of Christchurch, John Grimes (1842–1915), arrived in Christchurch in February 1888. He provided leadership to the Catholic community, and worked towards uniting the class differences, political opinions and different nationalities of the settlers. During his reign, many churches and buildings were constructed, including the Sisters of Mercy St Mary's Convent. For his silver jubilee as a bishop, he was invested with several ecclesiastical honours for his contributions. The Sisters of Mercy arrived in Christchurch in 1894, when under the guidance of Mother Mary Bernard (1810/1811?–1895), St Marys Parish School and Convent was established. The chapel, built in 1910, is the last remaining building of the St Mary's Convent, the rest of the complex having been demolished in 1994. The chapel was designed by the brothers Alfred Edgar Luttrell and Edward Sidney Luttrell; this was their first commission by the Diocese of Christchurch and they became their unofficial diocesan architects, designing many more churches and other buildings. It was purchased by the Christchurch City Council, who renovated the building in association with the Rose Chapel Trust and Friends of the Chapel. The chapel was damaged during the

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

Heritage listing

On 14 July 1995, the chapel was registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a Category II historic place, with the registration number being 7239. The chapel is significant for its aesthetics (especially the stained glass windows), its architecture (the Luttrell brothers are known for their well designed churches), cultural importance (as a religious teaching place) and spiritual life for the nuns.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://rosehistoricchapel.co.nz Gothic Revival church buildings in New Zealand Churches in Christchurch Heritage New Zealand Category 2 historic places in Canterbury, New Zealand Churches completed in 1910 2011 Christchurch earthquake St Mary's Convent Chapel Listed churches in New Zealand 1910s architecture in New Zealand Roman Catholic churches completed in 1910 Stone churches in New Zealand Chapels in New Zealand Sidney and Alfred Luttrell buildings