St Augustine's Cathedral has some stunning and striking stained glass windows. Dating back to September 1875, the windows are part of the original design and are from F. Barnett of Leith.
Imagine my surprise when I found an Afrikaans inscription on a plaque behind the baptismal font in the St Augustine's Catholic Cathedral. Very unusual.
I got to see the inside of St Augustine's Cathedral for the first time a few weeks ago while on a tour of Route 67. The church isn't generally open like St Mary's on the other side of the Public Library, so if you want to see it you need to make special arrangements or alternatively just attend a service.
When the first Catholic priest, Father George Corcoran, set foot in Port Elizabeth in 1840 it wasn't just a case of getting off the boat and taking up his position. No, he was shipwrecked in Cape St Francis and had to travel the last 100km to town on horseback. Once he arrived here he found that there were only 42 Catholics in the town. But the show had to go on and in the ensuing years the Catholic community in…
Port Elizabeth has two cathedrals, both located in the city centre. St Mary's Anglican Cathedral, where the foundation stone was laid in 1825, and St. Augustine's Catholic Cathedral where the first stone was laid in 1861. Standing in front of St Mary's and looking up at the tower, I was wondering if it is referred to as a church tower or a cathedral tower.
St Mary's Cemetery at the bottom of the Baakens Valley dates back to as early as 1799 when it was a military cemetery. This changed with the arrival of the 1820 British Settlers and you can still find graves of some of the original Settlers in the grave yard. On the hill above the cemetery stands the ruins of the St Peter's Church. The church was built in 1877 and after the people of South End were forcibly removed in…
The figure on the arch entrance way outside St Mary's Anglican Cathedral next to the Public Library in the Port Elizabeth city centre
The old fence on the wall around the Holy Trinity Church in Central has always fascinated me and it makes for a nice foreground for photos of the church as well.
With the month of Ramadan starting today, I thought it would be appropriate to do a Then and Now featuring the Masjied-Ul-Aziz (also known as the Pier Street Mosque or Green Mosque). The mosque was officially opened in July 1901 and the first Imam was Abdul Wahab Salie . The mosque was destined to be destroyed by the declaration of the Group Areas Act to make way for a freeway off ramp, but the matter went to the United Nations…