Sacred Heart Basilica

The largest Catholic church in the South Island, built from creamy Oamaru stone

Sacred Heart Basilica is the most impressive building in Timaru, and it tends to stop people who weren't expecting it. Built from Oamaru limestone — the same pale, warm-toned stone used for many of New Zealand's finest colonial buildings — it has a solidity and refinement unusual even for Catholic church architecture in New Zealand.

The interior is worth the effort of a visit. The painted ceiling is elaborate, the stained glass good, and the proportions of the nave give the building a proper sense of scale. It was built in stages between 1911 and 1940, and the craftsmanship throughout reflects the ambition of a community willing to invest seriously in its church. If the doors are unlocked, go in — it's open most days during daylight hours.

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Sacred Heart Basilica is built from Oamaru stone — the pale, creamy limestone quarried near the coastal town of Oamaru further south — which gives it an almost Mediterranean appearance in the right light. It is the largest Catholic church in the South Island and notably grander than anything a town of Timaru's size would normally support, a reminder of the scale of Irish and Italian immigration into Canterbury during the late nineteenth century.

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