85372

 

II  

Designated  

26/09/2005  

26/09/2005  

Church of the Most Holy Redeemer  

 

Gwynedd  

Porthmadog  

Porthmadog  

Porthmadog  

256707  

338516  

W  

On the SW side of the town centre on the road to Morfa Bychan.  

 

 

A Roman Catholic church dated 1933. The architect was G. Rinvolucri, an Italian architect who was originally brought to Wales as a prisoner of war. He lived and worked in North Wales, and designed a number of other churches in Wales, including those at Abergele and Amlwch. This church was originally designed with a concrete roof, but the steep slate roof was added in the 1960's.  

A church in simplified Romanesque style, with Arts-and-Crafts influence. The church is oriented N-S and comprises a nave and chancel under a single roof, with shallow apsidal projections to the chancel S (liturgical E) and E walls, and lower hipped vestry on the N side. Nave and chancel are tall and narrow, of rock-faced rubble stone with larger quoins, and a steep slate roof on a moulded stone cornice. The nave, rached up a steep flight of stone steps, has boarded doors with strap hinges, under a lintel with date and the inscription 'ADDOLWYN A CHLODFORWN DI O GRIST. DHERWYDD TRWY DY CROES FENDIGAID TI A BRYNAiST Y BYD. The tympanum has thin voussoirs, and a representation of Christ on the Cross in low-relief - probably marble. It is inscribed with the text 'ADOREMUS TE ET BENEDICIMUS TIBI QUIA SANCTUM CRUCEM REDEMISTI MUNDUM'. To the R and L are small round-headed windows with steel-framed glazing and incorporating pivoting lights. Above is a large cross in low relief, superimposed on a round window. The nave gable has raised verges, concealing a stack on the L (E) side, and has a slate-hung apex of swept profile, projecting on 2 gilded head corbels. The 3-window side walls have round-headed windows with steel-framed glazing and incorporating pivoting lights. The W side also has a small blocked window at the N end. The E wall has a boarded basement door to a boiler room at the N end, where the ground level is lower. The E apsidal chancel projection is lower and under a conical roof. The S (liturgical E) chancel apse has a hipped slate roof on wide eaves. The chancel gable is slate hung. The vestry has a half-lit door in the splay abutting the chancel, and in its S wall a 2-light and a 1-light window. In the opposite N wall is a boarded door under a 2-light window.  

The barn-like interior has a plaster tunnel vault, and plaster stripped to reveal rubble-stone walls. The chancel apse is blue mosaic and incorporates the figure of a dove. Apses in the side walls are in gold mosaic, and have fine stone statues of the Madonna and child and Christ the Redeemer; mosaic and statues are the work of Jonah Jones. Flanking the east apse are two round-arches: that to right is door to vestry over which is a high relief (timber?) mandorla with the Blessing of Christ; that to left contains a memorial of 1974, with a panel made up of fragments of medieval stained glass. The arrangement of the sanctuary reflects adaptation in the 1960s following the Second Vatican Council: the original rails remain, but other fittings are of the 1960s: altar and ambo are stone with marble framing, and have raised incised slate panels (also the work of Jonah Jones); the polished slate paschal candle-stand is an integral part of this design.  

Listed for its special architectural interest as a strongly composed and robustly detailed C20 Roman Catholic Church, with good interior detail. A fine example of the work of the Italian architect Rinvolucri.