St Matthew's Church is an inner-city

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, located on the

City Rise City Rise is an inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. One of the city's older suburbs, it is, as its name suggests, centred on the slopes which lie close to the city centre, particularly those closest to the city's original heart of ...

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, New Zealand. Designed by

William Mason William, Willie, or Willy Mason may refer to: Arts and entertainment *William Mason (poet) (1724–1797), English poet, editor and gardener *William Mason (architect) (1810–1897), New Zealand architect *William Mason (composer) (1829–1908), Ame ...

, the foundation stone was laid on 11 July 1873 and the building was consecrated on 3 December 1874. It cost

NZ£ The pound (symbol £, £NZ. for distinction) was the currency of New Zealand from 1933 until 1967, when it was replaced by the New Zealand dollar. Prior to this, New Zealand used the pound sterling since the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Like t ...

4,874 to construct which wasn't paid off until 1901. It comfortably seated 750 people.

Overview

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

building, somewhere between the Norman and the Early English style, it is built of

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of natural dimension stone, dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * diabase, dolerites in Tasmania, ...

with Port Chalmers breccia for the quoins and facings which is unusual. Very English in its feeling it represents a return to the plain manner of the architect's early career. It is cruciform in plan, with an apsidal chancel where there are five lancet stained glass windows. There are aisles divided from the nave by massive, octagonal piers, a tower and a spire at the south west corner above the principal entrance. There is another entrance at the north west angle. Some in the

Diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

wanted the building to become the

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

church, but the congregation was unwilling. St. Paul's in the Octagon was designated instead. The church has been fairly closely built around since its construction but retains an attractive appearance. Its internal layout was reversed in the late 20th century but has since been returned to its original orientation. The original pews have been lost but the interior is otherwise little modified. In 1942 the artist

Colin McCahon Colin John McCahon (; 1August 191927May 1987) was a New Zealand artist whose work over 45 years consisted of various styles, including landscape, figuration, abstraction, and the overlay of painted text. Along with Toss Woollaston and Rita Angus ...

married Anne Hamblett in St Matthew's, the ceremony being performed by her father, the Reverend Hamblett, then the incumbent clergyman. The church has a Category I listing with the

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage bui ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Matthew's Church, Dunedin 19th-century Anglican church buildings in New Zealand Churches in Dunedin Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in Otago Churches completed in 1874 Listed churches in New Zealand 1870s churches in New Zealand Gothic Revival church buildings in New Zealand Stone churches in New Zealand

Overview

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Further reading

External links