Colonialism, Medievalism, and Sacred Spaces/Places: Gothic Revival Church Architecture in Australia (original) (raw)
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On Culture, Colonialism and Religious Gothic Revival Architecture Across the British Empire
2010
Developed across Europe in the middle and late nineteenth century, and characterized by the use of medieval architectural forms, Gothic Revival, also known as Neo-Gothic, was an architectural reaction to the Classic Revival that had taken hold over the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Britain promptly took the lead in the spread of this style, making it “perhaps one of the most purely English movements in the plastic arts.” It was used almost exclusively for ecclesiastical purposes since it was often the style chosen for rural churches in England. In the 1850s, the Early Gothic Revival style developed into the High Victorian Gothic Revival. This style aimed to be monumental and more authentic by examining in more depth medieval architectural features. In this paper I intend to examine the implications of the British Empire’s ostensible dominance over its colonized nations, manifested through institutional buildings such as churches, built in a new architectural style considered proper to the English Western culture: the Gothic Revival. How is a Gothic Revival church building an index of its cultural identity and history in a British imperial colonial context? To answer this question, three Gothic Revival churches situated in former British colonies will be studied and discussed in order to demonstrate how their particular architecture reflected both English and colonial cultures as well as their implications in a cross-cultural colonial context. The following churches will be examined: Christ Church (1844-1857), an Anglican church in Shimla, India; St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church (1868- 1900) in Sydney, Australia; and Notre-Dame-de-Montréal (1824-1829), the Roman Catholic Basilica of Montreal, Canada.
2004
I n the mid-nineteenth century, practitioners engaged in reviving Gothic form for church building in remote outposts of the British Empire balanced style with necessity, while striving for correct ecclesiological designs. Necessity, read as purposefulness or "Utility," was the motive that activated "development" as a structure permeating antiquarianism for a clientele desiring changeability and adaptability. In remote British colonies there was the question of adapting Ecclesiological rules in their application to site specificity, locale, climate, constricted building budgets, materials availability, and the reality of unskilled labour. Meanwhile, Imperialist geo-political and religious power structures defined the appropriateness of Gothic style. Within the confines of the Gothic Revival style, adjustments made to Ecclesiological correctness exemplified the need for colonial practitioners to build Gothic churches in a practicable manner for the colonies. The ar...