The beautiful and clean city of Cork was simply mesmerizing and we could easily feel the warmth of the fresh ambience. We didn’t want to waste much time as we wanted to explore all the major
tourist spots to the best extent possible.
The jet lag couldn’t deter us from getting up early morning the next day as we didn’t want waste any time in the exploration process. After having breakfast at one of the nearby restaurants, we
decided to start our journey with the Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral.
It is located in Dublin, a province which is considered to be one of the best for Christian priests. It is considered to be the first important construction of William Burges, the famous
Victorian architect. Initially, it used to serve as the cathedral for Diocese of Cork.
At the present, it is a member of the three cathedrals that are a part of the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. On reaching the church, we came to know many interesting things about its history.
One of the priests told us that before the rise of this church, there were two structures devoted to Finbarr of Cork on the same site.
The first building was built during the seventh century and was destroyed during Siege of Cork in 1690. The second structure came into existence in 1735 while retaining some important elements of
the previous spire. The second structure existed till the 1860s during which talks of a new and bigger cathedral emerged.
The construction of the building was constructed in 1870 but the decoration and carving work continued till the 20th century. We could easily spot that the building was built in French style
which is regarded to be one Burge’s favourites.
We were simply left in awe with the spectacular architecture, interior decoration, stained glasses and of course the statuary. We learnt that the amount of money allotted in the construction was
greatly exceeded. Another spectacular element inside the church was the huge organ which is said to be constructed by William Hill and Sons in 1870. Initially, the organ had forty stops and three
manuals but it underwent several overhauls at different points of time.