St Mary’s CathedralWilliam Wardell

Beside Hyde Park, St Mary’s Cathedral is the principal church of Sydney’s Catholic community and one of the city’s strongest 19th–early 20th c. statements of faith in stone. After the earlier cathedral burned in 1865, the present Gothic Revival building was raised in warm local sandstone to designs by William Wardell, constructed in stages (1868–1928). Its twin spires stand as a spiritual and civic counterpoint to the CBD’s glass towers, a landmark threaded through ceremony, protest, and everyday city life.