The

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 let ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

of St. Joseph is one of the most important historical buildings in Stone Town,

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

, as well as one of its main

visitor attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...

s. The church is regularly used by the local Catholic community, with several

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

es being held each Sunday and occasionally on weekdays.

Location

The church is located in the Baghani area, off Kenyatta road.Saint Joseph's Catholic Cathedral
/ref> While its twin spires are easily seen from a distance and from elevated places in Stone Town (i.e., the House of Wonders balconies), the church itself can prove hard to find in the maze of narrow streets of Baghani. The easiest route to the church is following Kenyatta Road to Gizenga Street and then taking the first street on the right.St. Joseph's Cathedral
/ref>

History and style

The church was built by French missionaries between 1893 and 1898. The design of the church was based on that of the

Marseille Cathedral Marseille Cathedral (French: ''Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure de Marseille'' or ''Cathédrale de la Major'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral, and a national monument of France, located in Marseille. It has been a basilica minor since 1896. It is ...

, and in fact the two churches bear some resemblance to each other, the Stone Town cathedral being much smaller. Its main architectural feature is twin spires (like those of Marseille's church) that are one of the easiest elements of Stone Town's skyline to spot from elevated places as well as from the ocean.St. Joseph's Catholic Cathedral
/ref> The interior is painted with scenes from the Old Testament, all of which have been destroyed due to the poorly done restoration in 2014. The tiles and stained glass windows were imported from France. In the narrow churchyard there used to be a tall

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

, which appears in most pictures of the church; the tree has been cut down sometimes in the 2000s.

References

{{Commons category, St. Joseph's Cathedral, Zanzibar Religious buildings and structures in Zanzibar Roman Catholic cathedrals in Tanzania Cathedrals in Tanzania