The Cathedral Church of Saint Joseph, also known as St Joseph's Cathedral, Menevia Cathedral or Swansea Cathedral, is a Grade II-listed

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

cathedral in

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It was the seat of the

Bishop of Menevia The Bishop of Menevia was the ordinary of the Diocese of Menevia in the Province of Cardiff in the Catholic Church in Wales. The Diocese of Menevia covered an area of roughly consisting of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Neath Port Talbot, ...

and

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

of the Diocese of Menevia, and is the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia. 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 ...

was built in the late nineteenth century and is located in the Greenhill area of Swansea.

History

Originally built as a church, St Joseph's was conceived by Father Wulstan Richards, OSB who came to Greenhill in 1875. It was designed by

Peter Paul Pugin Peter Paul Pugin (1851 – March 1904) was an English architect. He was the son of Augustus Pugin by his third wife, Jane Knill, and the half-brother of architect and designer Edward Welby Pugin. Life and career Peter Paul Pugin was only a ...

and took two years to build at a cost of £10,000. The building was officially opened on 25 November 1888 while still under construction. Built as a church, it was converted to a cathedral in 1987 for the redefined Diocese of Menevia.The Cathedral Today
catholicweb.com; retrieved 29 March 2014. It was designated a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

on 30 March 1987.

Description

The plan of the building is that of an

apsidal In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In Byzant ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

flanked by side

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

s with a seven-bay

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, a polygonal tower with

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

in the north-west corner and twin porches on the western facade. Its walls are coursed bull-nosed masonry with

bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

dressings and red Dumfries stone in the nave piers and responds. The cathedral has a modern

pantile A pantile is a type of fired roof tile, normally made from clay. It is S-shaped in profile and is single lap, meaning that the end of the tile laps only the course immediately below. Flat tiles normally lap two courses. A pantile-covered roo ...

roof and there is a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

, topped with a

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

on the western side of the building above a small arched opening over a four-light Geometric traceried window. The nave has three-light

clerestory A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...

traceried windows and the east facade has a lower clerestory and a three-light window under a

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

led gable with a finial. The ceiling has radiating ribs that extend to the walls.

References

External links

Diocese of Menevia: The CathedralArtwork at St Joseph's Cathedral, Swansea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swansea, Saint Joseph Roman Catholic churches completed in 1889 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Grade II listed churches in Swansea Grade II listed cathedrals in Wales Mass media and culture in Swansea

Roman Catholic cathedrals in Wales Roman Catholic Diocese of Menevia Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia

History

Description

See also

References

External links