Buildings: Catholic Cathedral (St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral)

Adelaide's Catholic Cathedral, St. Francis Xavier's, was built in stages from 1851 to 1926. The foundations were laid on a site in Wakefield Street in 1851, but there was no money to further the project and a five year delay ensued. When building recommenced in 1856 it was on a new design that had been drawn up to fit the existing foundations. The core of the Cathedral was completed at this time, but in the 1880s it was enlarged - Peter Paul Pugin, son of English architect Augustus Pugin, drew the designs for this stage of construction. Another stage of building commenced in 1923 which included the Cathedral facade and the truncated tower on the building's north-west corner. The resulting building is a mixture of Early English Gothic and High Victorian decorated style.