St. Andrew's Cathedral (Victoria, British Columbia)

St. Andrews Cathedral
Third St. Andrews Cathedral
General information
Architectural style	High Victorian Gothic
Location	740 View Street Victoria, British Columbia V8W 1J8
Country	Canada
Construction started	1890
Completed	1892
Client	Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria
Technical details
Structural system	Red brick & terra cotta facade
Design and construction
Architect	Maurice Perrault and Albert Mesnard
National Historic Site of Canada
Official name	St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Cathedral National Historic Site of Canada
Designated	1990

St. Andrew's Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral for the diocese of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Built in the High Victorian Gothic style, St. Andrew's was Victoria's third cathedral to be built. (The first, 1858–1884, is now the Chapel of St. Ann's Academy on Humboldt Street; the second, 1884–1892, was on the site behind the current building now occupied by the St. Andrew's Square office building.)

Construction for the new cathedral began in 1890. At 8:00a.m. on October 30, 1892, Bishop Jean-Nicolas Lemmens blessed the building before celebrating a Pontifical High Mass at 10:00a.m. The cathedral has been a National Historic Site of Canada since 1990.

Based on the plans for a church built in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, Perrault and Mesnard borrowed much from the medieval architecture of European churches. The double asymmetrical towers are typical of Quebec churches and a characteristic of the High Victorian Gothic style. This was an attempt to follow the "unfinished" look that made fourteenth and fifteenth century churches popular.

The nave is seventy-two feet long, with a rose window. The main tower boasts a 175 ft (53 m) spire that was designed to hold a clock and a set of bells.

The nave

Organ loft and balcony

Façade with tower and east rose window

Nave vaulting

North altar & stained glass windows

South trancept

View from the southeast

Apse and altar

An altar was commissioned for use on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Bishop Remi Joseph De Roo's episcopal ordination. Carved by Charles W. Elliott, the first Native American to graduate from St. Louis College, the altar consists of two bentwood boxes. The boxes can be rotated to show four separate designs for the different liturgical seasons. The top of the altar or is carved from yellow cedar (Nootka Cypress) and weighs approximately four hundred pounds.