Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, Ireland:

Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral,is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Cork city, Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Begun in 1863, the cathedral was the first major work of the Victorian architect William Burges. Previously the cathedral of the Diocese of Cork, it is now one of three cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.The competition for the building of St Fin Barre's was held in 1862. In February 1863, Burges was declared the winner.His diary records his delight; "Got Cork!", whilst the cathedral accounts record the payment of the winning prize sum of £100.Building work took seven years before Divine Service was held in the cathedral in 1870. Building, carving and decoration continued into the 20th century, long after Burges's death in 1881.The style of the building is Early French, Burges's favoured period and a style he continued to favour throughout his life, choosing it for his own home, The Tower House, in Kensington. The stipulated price for construction was to be £15,000,a sum vastly exceeded. The total cost came to well over £100,000.Burges was unconcerned; his own words, in his letter of January 1877 to the Bishop of Cork, sum up his approach, a viewpoint which made him a very expensive architect to employ: " the whole affair will be on its trial and, the elements of time and cost being forgotten, the result only will be looked at. The great questions will then be, first, is this work beautiful and, secondly, have those to whom it was entrusted, done it with all their heart and all their ability."As was usual, Burges oversaw all aspects of the design, including the architecture of the building, the extensive statuary, the stained glass and the internal decoration. The result is "undoubtedly Burges's greatest work in ecclesiastical architecture"with an interior that is "overwhelming and intoxicating. To enter St. Fin Barre's Cathedral is an experience unparalled in Ireland and rarely matched anywhere.

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