Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Karachi

The St. Patrick's Cathedral is on the road Shahrah -e- Iraq Saddar in Town, the downtown part of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It is the bishop's church of the Archdiocese of Karachi.

History

The cathedral is built on the site, was built on in 1845, two years after the annexation of the State of Sindh in British India by Charles James Napier, the first Christian church probably for Goan Catholics.

The present cathedral was designed by the German Jesuit Father Karl Wagner ( 1821-1869 ). At the time, Karachi belonged to the Apostolic Vicariate of Bombay, which was managed by the Jesuit Order. There in Bombay also Wagner was a resident orden internal architect. After the Catholic mission had consolidated accordingly in Karachi and the funds were available, was laid in 1879 the foundation stone of the new St. Patrick `s Church. Father Wagner had already died in 1869, so the lay brothers Fr George Kluver SJ and Fr Herman Lau SJ acted as the construction manager and the house of God - the largest Catholic church in the city and the entire region - after he left behind plans ready set to 1881.

When in 1947, at the partition of India, Karachi in Pakistan was established in 1948 is the same diocese and elevated the St. Patrick `s Church for its cathedral.

It is a three-aisled basilica with a transept in neo-Gothic style or Indogotik. It was stone from the yellow Gizri, built of local sandstone variant, has a length of 52 meters, 22 meters wide and can seat 1,500 people.

On the front of the cathedral stands the Sacred Heart Memorial ( Sacred Heart Monument ), which was built in 1925 from white marble.

The St. Patrick `s Cathedral was released in 1979 and 2009 as a motive on stamps of Pakistan Post.