St Mary's Catholic Church, Bairnsdale, Vic, Australia
S 37° 49.588 E 147° 37.630
55H E 555193 N 5813253
It was built in 1913-4 from the design by Augustus Fritsch, replacing an earlier brick church from 1883.
Waymark Code: WMWKRR
Location: Victoria, Australia
Date Posted: 09/16/2017
Views: 1
The Church is listed in the Victorian Heritage Council as "Registered Significant". [H2174 - Victorian Heritage Register Number] (
visit link)
"St Mary's Church Bairnsdale was begun in 1913, replacing an earlier brick church of 1883. Father Cornelius Cremin proposed the new church soon after his appointment in 1909. Designed by the prolific Catholic church architect Augustus A Fritsch, the first stage comprising a nave of six bays with barrel vaulted ceiling and a sanctuary within a polygonal apse was opened by the Coadjutor Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Daniel Mannix, in July 1914. The second stage, being the final three bays of the nave, the west front with wheel window and tower, was completed by 1936.
"The church is executed in the Romanesque style, constructed of red brick, with cement dressings, a slate roof, and small copper dome to the dominant 42 metre high, asymmetrically placed tower. The comprehensive interior decorative scheme is of murals depicting the apostles, numerous saints, imaginings of purgatory, heaven and hell, and numerous seraphims and cherubims. It was executed by Francesco Floreani between 1931 and 1938. Floreani was a migrant Italian from Udine, who had studied painting at Udine College and then at the Academy of Arts in Turin. He arrived in Melbourne in 1928 and briefly was a house painter in Melbourne. During the
Depression he became an itinerant farm worker in Bairnsdale. In 1931 he approached Father Cremin for work, and after completing some minor commissions he set about a comprehensive decorative scheme for the church. The content of his murals were probably at least partly directed by Father Cremin, and are in flat, stylised manner, possibly inspired by Renaissance religious art. Father Crenin paid Floreani 3 pounds per week from his own purse."
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