St. Paul's Cathedral - the largest Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia. Designed in the Gothic style, the cathedral is a church feast of Archbishop of Melbourne and head of the Anglican archdiocese in Victoria.

Location of St. Paul very well: on the contrary is a complex of monuments Federation Square and along the diagonal - the largest railway station of the city of Flinders Street Station. Together, these buildings form a kind of historical center of Melbourne.

Since the 19th century the population of Melbourne consisted mainly of the parishioners of the Church of England, it is the best it has been granted the city a place for the construction of the main cathedral. And the place was not chosen by chance - the first services were held here since the founding of the city in 1835. Earlier this place was the Cathedral of St. James.

The first stone of the new cathedral was laid in 1880. The main architect was appointed an Englishman, William Butterfield, which, however, the very construction has never visited, which led to numerous disputes between the church authorities in Melbourne and living in London architect. Because of the constant disagreements delayed the construction of the cathedral, and in the end, it was completed by local architect Joseph Reed in 1891. However, the tower and the spire completely built only 35 years! Today, the steeple is the second highest in the world among the Anglican churches.

When St Paul's Cathedral was completed, it became the tallest building in the city - it is visible from almost anywhere. But already in the first half of the 20th century, numerous buildings, growing by leaps and bounds, surpassed the cathedral height and blocked the view of it.

The cathedral was brought from England set body - the creation of the famous master TS Lewis. This body, consisting of 6, 5000 tubes, is one of the largest in the world, made in the 19th century. In the 1990s it was restored, spending is $ 726,000.

Interestingly, for the construction of the cathedral was used sandstone, which was brought from New South Wales, rather than the local limestone, which built most of those years built buildings. Sandstone cathedral gives a warm yellow-brown color. But the tower built of stone from another, so the color is slightly different.