St. Paul’s Cathedral, Kolkata, consecrated in 1848, was the first Cathedral built in India.  At the time, its bishopric was extended from Afganistan to Australia, the largest in the world. 

Glimpses of the studies and the restorations that we have made about the Cathedral is presented here. 

Fortunately, we discovered a construction diary from the church vestry which gave us a ringside view of the issues for the first time.
The rest of the materials were studied in the national archives in New Delhi and London. 

The church has splendid stained glasses that the church has been included in the world inventory of important stained glasses.

All stained glasses, even today, do not work on artificial lights but requires day lights for proper viewing.  Therefore, both sides of the church require equal sunshine which is dependent on the sun movement.  Thus, the orientation of classical buildings are linked to the celestial movements.

The inclination from the true east for equitable  sunshine on both the facades is not the same as it is in England which is, compared to Kolkata, further away from the Equator.  Our review has shown that the builders placed it at correct orientation.

Ideally, the building should align with the sunrise on the equinox when day and night duration are the same which happens on 21 / 23 rd September.  Interestingly, the alignment is little off-center and align with that 8th of October 1839.

A review of Pratt’s diary for construction cleared the issue. Pratt chronicled on October 1 1839,

“The Bishop stated that the Building Sub Committee had informed him on September 1 that the rains had been so copious that it would be impossible to begin the works & there would be no particular use in opening the ground superficially for laying the first stone on the September 23 as proposed. Tuesday October 8 was suggested as a good day“.

It showed that the Church’s orientation was made by the direct method of aligning the sunrise point in the site. The equinox that is September 23 was targeted but could not be used because of rains. The next feasible date October 8, was when the weather was suitable for marking the sunrise for orientation.

Originally, the church steeple was built differently but toppled in the 1897 and further damaged in 1934 earthquake.  It was then rebuilt as we see it today.

The church still suffers from earthquake safety.  These and some structural issues are presented in the clip.

Before the days of electrical fans , natural ventilation was very important for buildings in the tropical countries. In medieval Europe, architects designed to bring in natural lights to the interior.  The accompanying radiation bringing in the heat was also welcome.

The Mughals did not have such luxuries but devised ingenious ways to bring in the light but reduce heat from natural ventilation.  The church architecture is a fine example of such a technique first time for a church in India.

A video clip is presented below.