The Mi­nor Basil­i­ca or RC Cathe­dral Parish of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion is a doc­u­ment­ed na­tion­al his­toric mon­u­ment. Stand­ing on In­de­pen­dence Square in Port-of-Spain, the cur­rent struc­ture dates back to March 24, 1816, when the foun­da­tion stone was laid. In an ef­fort to raise funds for restora­tive work on the build­ing, parish­ioners will host an in­au­gur­al East­er din­ner on April 29, from 5-8.30 pm at the Catholic Cen­tre car park on In­de­pen­dence Square, Port-of-Spain. En­ter­tain­ment will be pro­vid­ed by Pe­dro Leza­ma, Anselm Wal­ters, Du­ane O'Con­nor, Aaron Dun­can, Keisha Co­dring­ton and Grace Min­istries.

The cathe­dral was orig­i­nal­ly a wood­en struc­ture built in 1781, with a ca­pac­i­ty of 500. At the turn of that cen­tu­ry it be­came ev­i­dent that the build­ing was too small and a de­ci­sion was tak­en to re­place it by a more per­ma­nent and larg­er struc­ture. The build­ing was com­plet­ed in 1836 and con­se­crat­ed on Feb­ru­ary 23, 1851 by the first Arch­bish­op of Port-of-Spain, the Rev Patrick Smith. In 1851 Pope Pius IX de­clared the cathe­dral to rank the sta­tus of Mi­nor Basil­i­ca and to en­joy the priv­i­leges of the Ma­jor Basil­i­ca of St Mary Ma­jor in Rome.

More IN­FO

• For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion vis­it the cathe­dral parish of­fice be­tween 9.30 am and 3.30 pm or call 623-5232.