There is a beautiful old Catholic St. Boniface Cathedral in Winnipeg. It has a very unusual appearance that attracts tourists to the city. The history of the cathedral is also interesting.

At first, a small chapel was built on the site of the future cathedral in the St. Boniface quarter in 1818. The initiator of the construction was the priest Norbert Provencher. A few years later, he became the first bishop of St. Boniface Cathedral. In 1832, the chapel was rebuilt into a larger church: the number of parishioners was growing, and more space was needed. Even though the building was larger and more beautiful, it remained wooden. This will play a fatal role in its history in a few years.

All went well until December 1860. Then there was a fire in the city. It almost destroyed the temple. Since it was the only cathedral in the city, all the residents began to raise funds for its restoration. And in 1862, Winnipeg had a new stone, majestic and modern St. Boniface Cathedral.

But this was not the final version of the building. Probably St. Boniface Cathedral is one of the few cathedrals, which was rebuilt many times for different reasons.

The next change was at the end of the nineteenth century. The church stopped accepting all comers again. It got to the point that some people stood on the street during services. So the cathedral was rebuilt. The work was supervised by the famous architect Jean-Omer Marchand. It was he who created the appearance of the temple that we can see now.

Then, there were new challenges. In the summer of 1968, fire once again destroyed the church. Only the walls and vestry of the building remain. Restoration of the cathedral began in 1972 and continues to this day, as the goal of the architects is to restore the original appearance of the building as completely as possible.