The Hong Kong Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. It is the seat of the Diocesan bishop, currently John Tong. The Cathedral is one of the two cathedrals in the territory of Hong Kong, the other being the Anglican St. John's Cathedral.

    It is located at 16 Caine Road, Central. It is open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm daily. It is a Grade I Historic Building.

Features

   The Cathedral measures 272 feet (83 m) long and 132 ft (40 m) wide, with 38 columns. It is an imposing Gothic Revival style built in a Greek cruciform shape with a tower at the intersection of the nave and transepts. It is constructed predominantly of bricks and stone over a granite platform and is supported by external buttresses.

History

   The first Roman Catholic cathedral of Hong Kong was built in 1843 at the junction of Pottinger Street and Wellington Street[2] and was destroyed in a fire in 1859. The cathedral was rebuilt, but subsequently a different site was selected just above Caine Road by the Glenealy Ravine, where it is still located today. The Cathedral was designed by Crawley and Company of London. Construction of the new building started in 1883. Services first began in July 1886 under the auspices of the Apostolic Vicar Dominic Pozzoni and the first Mass was celebrated on 7 December 1888. Many of the early parishioners were Portuguese people who lived in the area around Shelley Street.[2]

   It was a Cathedral from the time it was built, as the seat of the apostolic vicariate that preceded the establishment of the diocese in 1946; however, it was not consecrated as a cathedral until 1938.