St. Mary's Cathedral, County Kilkenny

St. Mary's Cathedral, County Kilkenny

St. Mary's Cathedral is located on James Street in Kilkenny City, County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is a Catholic church under the Diocese of Ossory. Situated at the highest point in Kilkenny City, it is one of the city’s important landmark buildings.

At the time, the bishop of St. Mary's Cathedral was William Kinsella, who chose architect William Deane Butler to design and build the cathedral. Bishop Kinsella began planning the construction of the cathedral in February 1842, with building work commencing in April 1843 and completed in 1857. The project spanned the Great Famine in Ireland from 1845 to 1852, and the total cost was approximately £25,000. On Sunday, October 4, 1857, the grand opening ceremony of St. Mary's Cathedral began at 6:15 am and lasted for two hours and forty-five minutes.

St. Mary's Cathedral is built from locally quarried limestone and features a cruciform layout in the early English Gothic architectural style; its design is widely considered to be based on Gloucester Cathedral in England. Inside the cathedral is a famous statue of the Virgin Mary, created by the Italian Neoclassical sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni.

St. Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny

Must-visit reason: One of the main landmark buildings in Kilkenny

Continent where the attraction is located: Europe【Europe】

Country/region where the attraction is located: Ireland[Ireland]

Province/state where the attraction is located: County Kilkenny [County Kilkenny]

City where the attraction is located: Kilkenny [Kilkenny]