21 January 2015

Repost from 10 years ago : St Francis in Elizabeth Street is an amalgam of many periods and changes, with the main middle section built 1841-5, making it one of the oldest buildings in Melbourne. The first thing you see going in is a huge marble #baldaccino thing – it was originally part of the large elaborate marble altar imported about 1878 from Rome (of course), to go in the new extended classical style apse, even though this blocked the big crucifixion painting from view a bit. So over 100 years later in the 1990s they got a permit to move it here into the #narthex (itself added in the 1950s), to use as a #font, but that didn’t happen it seems. I could only find one pic of it in the altar, almost lost in various decorations. The older part, designed by Samuel Jackson, is very restrained, very Colonial, with simple Gothic windows and an un-gothic lovely flat panelled cedar ceiling, installed in 1850. Off to one side is the 1858 Ladye Chapel, its elaborate vaulting and polychrome decoration a big contrast to the nave. Pic 4 and the comparison image borrowed from Facebook.

• Uncategorized