A cathedral hung from a colossal figure of the saint – Aldo Spirito’s cable-stayed sanctuary above the lagoon, one of Africa’s boldest modern churches.
At a glance
- Type
- Cathedral
- Period
- 1980-1985
- Style
- Structural Expressionism
- Location
- Plateau, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
- Coordinates
- 5.3364, -4.0178
- Architect
- Aldo Spirito
Overview
St Paul’s Cathedral in Abidjan suspends its sanctuary from a 70-metre concrete pylon shaped as a stylized St Paul, whose seven cables hold the roof like the ropes of a tent or the nets of the apostle-fisherman. Italian architect Aldo Spirito won the international competition; Pope John Paul II laid the first stone in 1980 and consecrated the finished cathedral in 1985 – then among the largest in Africa, seating 5,000.
History
Felix Houphouet-Boigny’s prosperous Ivory Coast of the cocoa decades built big: the cathedral on the Plateau headland preceded the even vaster basilica the president raised at Yamoussoukro in 1989. St Paul’s remained the working cathedral of Abidjan through the civil conflicts of the 2000s, its silhouette over the Ebrie lagoon a fixture of the skyline alongside the Plateau’s towers.
Architecture and Design
The figure-pylon leans lagoon-ward, cables fanning to the folded roof of the translucent nave, whose glass walls bear painted scenes of the missions. The bell tower rings a separate slender note; the crypt and esplanade host the crowds of feast days. Engineering and iconography fuse – the building is at once statue, tent, and church.
Cultural significance
St Paul’s expresses the confident, cosmopolitan Ivory Coast of the miracle years and remains one of the most original cathedrals of the 20th century anywhere – a pair with Yamoussoukro’s basilica in the country’s extraordinary sacred-building legacy.
Visiting today
Open daily; Sunday Masses overflow with music. The Plateau’s markets and the lagoon corniche adjoin, and the contrast visit to Yamoussoukro’s basilica makes the classic Ivorian architecture itinerary.
Getting there
The cathedral crowns the northern Plateau near the Houphouet-Boigny bridge approaches; taxis from any district reach it easily.
Sources and resources
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