St Joseph's Cathedral

St Joseph’s Cathedral stands in the Greenhill area of Swansea, a Grade II-listed Catholic cathedral also known as Menevia Cathedral. It was designed by Peter Paul Pugin and built in the late 19th century as a church, later becoming a cathedral in 1987. Father Wulstan Richards, OSB, who arrived in Greenhill in 1875, conceived the project. The building took two years to complete at a cost of £10,000 and was officially opened in 1888 while still under construction. It serves as the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia and the seat of the Bishop of Menevia. The cathedral’s design features an apsidal chancel flanked by side chapels and a seven-bay aisled nave. Its walls are built with coursed bull-nosed masonry, bath stone dressings and red Dumfries stone in the nave piers. The western facade has twin porches and a polygonal tower with spire in the north-west corner. The roof is modern pantile, and the eastern facade includes a three-light window under a corbelled gable with a finial. The ceiling has radiating ribs that extend to the walls, adding to the building’s architectural interest. Inside, the nave has three-light clerestory traceried windows, while the east facade features a lower clerestory. A small arched opening above the western window holds a four-light Geometric traceried window. The gabled parapet on the western side is topped with a finial. The cathedral’s interior reflects its history as both a church and a cathedral, with details that highlight its craftsmanship and design.