The St. Paul’s Cathedral, dedicated
to St Paul, the Apostle, remains a symbol of the European heritage in Kolkata. It
closely resembles the Canterbury Cathedral which is the Mother Church of the
worldwide Anglican Communion.
The need for St. Paul’s
Cathedral was felt in the early 19th century by the British
residents who had made Calcutta (Kolkata) their home. St. John’s Church – the Anglican
Cathedral of Calcutta built by the East India Company in 1787 – could no longer
accommodate the growing European community in the city. Therefore at the
request of Francis Rawdon-Hastings, the then Governor General of
Bengal, William Forbes, an architect of Royal Engineers, designed a new
cathedral in 1819. However, the project was considered too expensive and was
discarded by East India Company. Several years later, Bishop Daniel Wilson, the
fifth Bishop of Calcutta, assumed office in 1832 and revived the project. The
foundation stone was laid in 1839. As the construction proceeded, the East
India Company announced a grant of Rs. 150,000. St Paul’s Cathedral was
consecrated on 8th October, 1847. It was the first Episcopal Church
of the eastern world and the first cathedral built in a British overseas
territory.
St. Paul’s Cathedral is an
architectural marvel – quite impressive with its striking Gothic stained-glass
windows and Renaissance-style frescoes. These stained-glass windows fill the
cathedral with filtered light, giving it a sacred glow. The ceiling is unusual
... it is a shallow curve spanned by iron trusses adorned with Gothic designs. It
is believed that the architect had doubts whether the ground could bear the
weight of heavy pillars and arches: the design was therefore scaled down to one
big hall without side aisles. The Cathedral tower is modelled on the ‘Bell Harry Tower’ of the Canterbury
Cathedral. The Indo-Gothic design of St Paul’s Cathedral adapted the
Gothic-revival designs to suit the Indian milieu.
Inside the cathedral, are magnificent carvings and paintings depicting
events from the life of St. Paul. There are a plethora of marble tablets,
personal memorials and memorials of iconic events like the Great Mutiny of 1857
and the First World War. The most haunting memorabilia is the “charred cross” made
from burnt wooden beams of homes collected by Canon Subir Biswas during the
Bangladesh Liberation War (1971). The charred logs were fashioned into crosses
and displayed in the chapel as a reminder of the devastation of war, human sin
and divine forgiveness ... it is not just a relic but a symbol of resilience.
