The Cathedral Architecture

St Joseph’s Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral. The term Gothic refers to a particular style of architecture that originated in Europe around the 12th Century. It has certain characteristics such as high spires, rib vaulting, four walls – two high inner walls with pillar support and two smaller outer walls – and flying buttresses.

The weight of the roof passes to the high inner walls and thence to the pillars. This tends to push the walls apart and so the smaller outer walls have supports (flying buttresses) from them to the inner walls. As the outer walls take little weight they can be built of thinner stone and can have many spaces cut in them for doorways and stained glass windows.

Evidence can be seen on the outside of the cathedral of where the flying buttresses used to be. As their removal could cause instability for the inner walls, strengthening rods now go from wall to wall inside the Cathedral.

The most imposing feature people see as they approach the cathedral is the high spires. Their elevation hopefully leads to a spiritual uplifting for those about to enter. The high vaulted ceiling in the nave helps sustain this feeling.

A variation from the norm can be seen in the lattice work above the doorways which allowed an air flow and were a concession to the fact that this cathedral was situated in the tropics.