The Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul (french: Cathédrale Saint-Vincent-de-Paul de Tunis) is a

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 ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

located in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. The

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 ...

is dedicated to Saint

Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was a Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. In 1622 Vincent was appointed a chaplain to the galleys. Afte ...

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of charity. It is the episcopal see of the Archdiocese of Tunis and is situated at Place de l'Indépendence in Ville Nouvelle, a crossroads between Avenue Habib Bourguiba and Avenue de France, opposite the French embassy. The church, designed by L. Bonnet-Labranche, was built in a mixture of styles, including

Moorish revival Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centu ...

, Gothic revival, and

Neo-Byzantine Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orth ...

architectural traditions. The cornerstone was laid in 1890, and construction began in 1893. The church was opened on

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

in 1897, albeit without its

belltower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

s owing to a shortage of funds. The reinforced concrete towers were completed in 1910 using the Hennebique technique. Cardinal

Charles Lavigerie Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie (31 October 1825 – 26 November 1892) was a French cardinal, archbishop of Carthage and Algiers and primate of Africa. He also founded the White Fathers. A Catholic priest who became a bishop in France, Laviger ...

laid the first stone for a church on 7 November 1881, a little further down Avenue de la Marine (now Avenue Habib Bourguiba). This was a

pro-cathedral A pro-cathedral or procathedral is a parish church that temporarily serves as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese, or a church that has the same function in a Catholic missionary jurisdiction (such as an apostolic prefecture or apostoli ...

; the cathedral of the archdiocese (then called

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...

) being the Saint Louis Cathedral. The pro-cathedral was built quickly, but its condition soon deteriorated due to the adverse ground conditions, necessitating the construction of the current cathedral. The number of Roman Catholics in Tunisia fell rapidly following Tunisian independence from France. A modus vivendi reached between the Republic of Tunisia and the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

in 1964 resulted in the transfer of selected buildings to the Tunisian state for public use, including the

Acropolium of Carthage The Acropolium, also known as Saint Louis Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Saint-Louis de Carthage), is a former Roman Catholic church located in Carthage, Tunisia. The cathedral sits on the peak of Byrsa Hill, near the ruins of the ancient Punic ...

in Carthage. However, the Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul remains under the ownership and operation of the Roman Catholic Church in Tunisia.

Notes

External links

{{Commons category, Cathedral Saint-Vincent-de-Paul of Tunis
Archdiocese of Tunis page

Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul on
structurae Churches completed in 1897 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings

Religious buildings and structures in Tunis Byzantine Revival architecture in Tunisia Gothic Revival church buildings in Tunisia Moorish Revival architecture

See also

Notes

External links