St Patrick's Cathedral, Poona

St. Patrick's Cathedral is a Roman Catholic religious building located adjacent to the 'Empress Garden' in Pune (India). Built in neo-gothic style in the middle of the 19th century it was adopted as 'Cathedral' Church when Pune (then Poona) was made diocese (1886), of which it is still the main church. It also has the highest number of parishioners of the Pune diocese.HistoryThe cathedral was built in 1850 mainly to cater the Irish Catholic Soldiers and others settled in Wanowrie and nearby areas.Earlier, mass was celebrated for the troops, who were mainly Irish and other Catholics in a single room chapel at the end of Right Flank Lines in Wanowrie. Bishop Anastasius Hartmann OFM Cap., the Apostolic Vicar of Bombay and Poona wanted to have a better place of worship and so, he co-opted Fr. James Carry, an Irish Diocesan Priest from the Madras Mission as a Chaplain in Poona in 1849. Fr. Carry immediately drew up plans to erect a new chapel.At the request of the bishop, the government allotted land. The chapel was built with contributions from people and from the soldiers, who contributed a month's salary.On December 8, 1850 the first mass was celebrated in the new chapel which is now St. Patrick's Cathedral.Fr. Carry completed the south (Wanowrie) side of the Church, with its pinnacled buttresses. The north side (Ghorpuri) was completed later by Fr. Esseiva, S.J.