Sydney Bahá'í House of Worship
| Sydney Bahá'í Temple | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Type | Bahá'í House of Worship |
| Location | Ingleside, Sydney, Australia |
| Coordinates | 33°41′08″S 151°15′31″E / 33.6855°S 151.2587°ECoordinates: 33°41′08″S 151°15′31″E / 33.6855°S 151.2587°E |
| Completed | 16 September 1961 |
| Height | 38 metres (125 ft) |
| Dimensions | |
| Diameter | 20 metres (66 ft) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Mason Remey, John Brogan |
| Other information | |
| Seating capacity | 600 |
The Sydney Bahá'í House of Worship or Sydney Bahá'í Temple is situated in Ingleside, a northern suburb of Sydney, Australia. According to Jennifer Taylor, a historian at Sydney University, it is among Sydney's four most significant religious buildings constructed in the twentieth century. It was the world's fourth Bahá'í House of Worship to be constructed, completed in 1961.Shoghi Effendi, head of the Bahá'í Faith when the House of Worship was designed, called it the "Mother Temple of the whole Pacific area" and the "Mother Temple of the Antipodes." Every year, over 20,000 domestic and foreign visitors frequent the House of Worship.
In the early 1950s, the Bahá'ís of Australia began work to purchase a property for a House of Worship. When the persecution of Bahá'ís intensified in Iran in 1955, Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, suspended plans for a House of Worship in Tehran and commissioned two others in its place, one in Kampala, Uganda, and the other in Sydney. The property for the temple was acquired in 1956. An initial design by Charles Mason Remey was given to Sydney architect John Brogan to develop and complete, and construction began in April 1957. On 22 March 1958, a foundation ceremony was held which was attended by Clara Dunn, a Hand of the Cause appointed by Shoghi Effendi who first brought the Bahá'í Faith to Australia in 1920 along with her husband John Hyde Dunn.
The temple was dedicated on 16 and 17 September 1961 by Shoghi Effendi's widow Rúhíyyih Khánum (Mary Maxwell), and international dignitaries then attended a reception hosted by the mayor of Sydney. At this time, the structure's technical features received treatment in engineering and construction journals including Plywood and Products and Construction, while general coverage appeared in The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mirror, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Australian Post, among other Australian news outlets. Internationally, the temple was mentioned briefly in sources including The Economist and Time. The total cost of the four-year construction was £175,000.
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