Belfast Cathedral, also known as St. Anne’s Cathedral, is located in the heart of Belfast city center and is an Anglican Basilica.
It was built in 1899 in Romanesque style on the ruins of the previous 18th-century church.
The cathedral’s choir was built between 1922 and 1924, the baptistery was completed in 1928, and the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, containing mosaics related to St. Patrick, was inaugurated on 5th July 1932, exactly 1,500 years after the saint’s arrival in Ireland.
The north transept, with its large Celtic cross, housing the Chapel of the Royal Irish Rifles (an infantry regiment that fought in the Second Boer War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War), was completed in 1981.
In April 2007, a stainless-steel spire called the Spire of Hope, equipped with night lighting, was placed atop the cathedral.
The base of the Spire of Hope rests on a glass platform in the ceiling just above the choir stalls.
Thanks to its excellent acoustics, the cathedral hosts concerts, plays, and choral performances.
An interesting tradition is the Black Santa, which originated in 1976 when the Reverend Samuel B. Crooks, dean of the church, began spending the week before Christmas on the cathedral steps, accepting donations from passersby and donating the proceeds to local Belfast charities.
Crooks was later nicknamed “Black Santa,” because of the heavy dark clothes he wore to keep warm.
