Sunday, April 19, 2015

Katedral Randusari

The Cathedral of the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary (Indonesian: Gereja Katedral Perawan Maria Ratu Rosario Suci), also known as the Holy Rosary Cathedral or Randusari Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral and the seat of the Archdiocese of Semarang. Finished in 1927 at Randusari, Semarang, Indonesia, it became a parish church in 1930 and a cathedral in 1940, when Albertus Soegijapranata was made the first apostolic vicar of Semarang.
The cathedral is located near Tugu Muda, in Randusari, Semarang. The Tugu Muda area, a Cultural Property of Indonesia, also includes Lawang Sewu, Mandala Bhakti Museum, and Bulu Market.

The cathedral complex includes the cathedral proper, a meeting hall, and school. In 2012 an official residence and office for the bishop was formalised. It contains a chapel, archive, secretariat, a garden, and general purpose room, as well as six rooms of residential space. It is the seat of the Archdiocese of Semarang.

The cathedral is built on a stone foundation, with a large, column-free congregation hall within. The roofs and arches have parapets, and the doors on the rectangular building face north, west, and south; the facade is to the west.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Gereja St Joseph Gedangan Semarang

St. Joseph's Church (Indonesian: Gereja Santo Yosef), also known as Gedangan Church, is a Catholic church in Semarang, Indonesia, the first such church in the city. Administratively, it is part of the St. Joseph's Parish in the Archdiocese of Semarang.

Constructed between 1870 to 1875 to meet the needs of Semarang's growing Catholic population, the red-brick church building was designed by the Dutch architect W. I. van Bakel and built at a cost of 110,000 gulden. The church grew extensively over the following fifty years, at first dominated by ethnic Europeans and persons of mixed descent but later having a majority indigenous congregation. As the Catholic population grew, the size of the parish diminished as new ones were established.

The church complex consists of, among other things, the church building, a presbytery, and a convent. St. Joseph's itself is highly decorated, including nineteen stained glass windows (including three dedicated to church's patron saint, Joseph), carvings showing the fourteen Stations of the Cross, and an altar imported from Germany. The single tower is home to two bells produced by Petit & Fritsen.