Cathedral of Saint Vincent de Paul

Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul
Façade of the cathedral
Religion
AffiliationRoman Catholic Church
ProvinceArchdiocese of Tunis
RiteRoman Rite
Ecclesiastical or organizational statusCathedral
LeadershipArchbishop Nicolas Lhernould[1]
StatusActive
Location
LocationTunis, Tunisia
Geographic coordinates36°48′0″N 10°10′44″E / 36.80000°N 10.17889°E / 36.80000; 10.17889
Architecture
Typechurch
StyleMoorish, Gothic, Neo-Byzantine
Groundbreaking1890
Completed1897
Website
www.diocesetunisie.org
Bilingual plaque in the Cathedral of Saint Vincent de Paul, Tunis, commemorating Pope Victor I (r. AD 189–199), who was from Africa Proconsularis and, thus, possibly from modern Tunisia.

The Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul (Arabic: كاتدرائية القديس فنسون دو بول بتونس هي, French: Cathédrale Saint-Vincent-de-Paul de Tunis) is a Roman Catholic church located in Tunis, Tunisia. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Vincent de Paul, patron saint of charity. It is the episcopal see of the Archdiocese of Tunis and is situated at Place de l'Indépendence in Ville Nouvelle, a crossroads between Avenue Habib Bourguiba and Avenue de France, opposite the French embassy.

The cathedral in 1932

The church, designed by L. Bonnet-Labranche, was built in a mixture of styles, including Moorish revival, Gothic revival, and Neo-Byzantine architectural traditions. The cornerstone was laid in 1890, and construction began in 1893. The church was opened on Christmas in 1897,[2] albeit without its belltowers owing to a shortage of funds. The reinforced concrete towers were completed in 1910 using the Hennebique technique.[3]

Cardinal Charles Lavigerie laid the first stone for a church on 7 November 1881, a little further down Avenue de la Marine (now Avenue Habib Bourguiba). This was a pro-cathedral; the cathedral of the archdiocese (then called Carthage) being the Saint Louis Cathedral.[4] The pro-cathedral was built quickly, but its condition soon deteriorated due to the adverse ground conditions, necessitating the construction of the current cathedral.

The number of Roman Catholics in Tunisia fell rapidly following Tunisian independence from France. A modus vivendi reached between the Republic of Tunisia and the Vatican in 1964 resulted in the transfer of selected buildings to the Tunisian state for public use, including the Acropolium of Carthage in Carthage. However, the Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul remains under the ownership and operation of the Roman Catholic Church in Tunisia.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul, GCatholic.org
  2. ^ Portal of Tunisian Monuments and Sites. "Tunis cathedral". Government of Tunisia. Retrieved 10 July 2011.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ Daniel. E. Coslett, "(Re)creating a Christian Image Abroad: The Catholic Cathedrals of Protectorate-era Tunis” in Sacred Precincts: The Religious Architecture of Non-Muslim Communities across the Islamic World, ed. Mohammad Gharipour (Boston, MA: Brill, 2015), 353–75.
  4. ^ O'Donnell, Joseph Dean (1979). Lavigerie in Tunisia : the interplay of imperialist and missionary. Athens: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-0456-4.
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