St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican

Anglican Communion

The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...

 cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

 in the city of Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It is the Cathedral and administrative centre of the Diocese of Brechin

Diocese of Brechin (Episcopalian)

The Diocese of Brechin is in the east of Scotland, and is the smallest of the seven dioceses of the Scottish Episcopal Church. It covers the City of Dundee, Angus and southern Aberdeenshire. It stretches from Muchalls in the north east down to Dundee in the south, and across to Glencarse in the...

 in the Scottish Episcopal Church

Scottish Episcopal Church

The Scottish Episcopal Church is a Christian church in Scotland, consisting of seven dioceses. Since the 17th century, it has had an identity distinct from the presbyterian Church of Scotland....

.

Castle

Built on the site of the medieval seat of power in the area, the castle which formerly stood on the site had been besieged by the armies of William Wallace

William Wallace

Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....

, Andrew de Moray and later by Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Scottish Independence

Wars of Scottish Independence

The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....

. The stronghold was destroyed during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Wars of the Three Kingdoms

The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...

. A small portion of the castle still remains within the Cathedral grounds. During the building of modern offices on Exchange Street behind the cathedral workers discovered remains of the castle in the form of a crypt

Crypt

In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....

-like structure underground. It is thought that the site may have borne fortifications from as far back as 80 AD.

Church

The foundation stone of the Cathedral was laid on July 21, 1853 and it was completed in 1855. It was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott

George Gilbert Scott

Sir George Gilbert Scott was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses...

 and is in the style of the Middle or Decorated period of Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

.

In 1847, Alexander Penrose Forbes

Alexander Penrose Forbes

Alexander Penrose Forbes , Scottish divine, was born at Edinburgh.He was the second son of John Hay Forbes, Lord Medwyn, a judge of the court of session, and grandson of Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo. He studied first at the Edinburgh Academy, then for two years under the Rev. Thomas Dale...

 was elected new Bishop of Brechin

Bishop of Brechin

The Bishop of Brechin is the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Brechin or Angus, based at Brechin Cathedral, Brechin. The diocese had a long-established Gaelic monastic community which survived into the 13th century. The clerical establishment may very well have traced their earlier origins...

 who chose to make Dundee his permanent residence.

At the time of Bishop Forbes' arrival, St Paul's Chapel met in rooms in nearby Castle Street, which Forbes considered to be dreary and "unworthy of the worship of the Almighty". Thus, he "urged his people to take on the holy work of building, to the glory of God, a stately church", a place which would offer refuge to the many poor that lived in the surrounding tenements.

The total cost of the building exceeded £

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

14,000 and it took the congregation 10 years after its completion to pay off all the debts incurred. The church was dedicated on All Saints Day, November 1, 1865.

St Paul's was raised to Cathedral status in 1905 and is now a category A listed building.

External links

• St. Paul's Cathedral Dundee