Survey Data
Reg No
22501489
Rating
National
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1760 - 1765
Coordinates
260610, 112456
Date Recorded
18/06/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached five-bay two-storey Catholic church, built 1764. Renovated and extended, c.1840, comprising two-bay double-height chancel to south-west. Extended, c.1890, comprising two-bay single-storey sacristy to south-east. Reroofed and renovated, c.1990. Pitched roof with replacement artificial slate, c.1990, concrete ridge tiles, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods, c.1990, on rendered eaves. Unpainted replacement cement rendered walls, c.1990. Round-headed window openings with replacement concrete sills, c.1990. Fixed-pane timber windows with stained glass fittings, and replacement fixed-pane timber secondary (protective) glazing, c.1990, along north elevation. Round-headed door opening in fluted pilaster doorcase, c.1840, having pediment, moulded archivolt with keystone, and timber panelled double doors with overpanel. Full-height interior with carved timber pews, balustraded timber circumferential gallery to first floor on fluted Doric columns, decorative plasterwork Classical-style reredos with fluted pilasters, frieze with triglyph motifs and broken pediment over, and barrel-vaulted ceiling on moulded cornice having plasterwork panels. Set back from road in own grounds.
Appraisal
This church is of considerable significance as one of the earliest-surviving post-Reformation churches in Ireland. Comprehensively renovated and extended over the years, the church retains little of its original fabric to the exterior, although some of the early form remains intact. The church is particularly noteworthy for the quality of the interior, which incorporates artefacts of artistic importance, together with a circumferential gallery of technical interest. The church is a discrete feature of the townscape of Waterford City, and contributes to the historic fabric of the locality.