St Mary's Cathedral

St Mary’s Cathedral stands beside Hyde Park as the principal church of Sydney’s Catholic community and one of the city’s clearest 19th–early 20th c. statements of faith in stone. After the earlier cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1865, the present Gothic Revival building rose in warm local sandstone to designs by William Wardell, constructed in stages from 1868–1928. Its twin spires remain a spiritual and civic counterpoint to the CBD’s glass towers, a landmark woven into ceremonies, protest, and everyday city life.