Old St Stephen's Catholic Church (Pugin Chapel), Brisbane

This chapel is an intimate respite from its larger neighbouring cathedral. The Old St Stephen's Church is also known locally as the Pugin Chapel after it designer, internationally renowned Gothic Revival architect Augustus Welby Pugin. Heritage listed and restored it is worth a visit for those interested in Australian Gothic architecture.

The oldest surviving church building in Brisbane, designed by the famed architect Pugin. Daily weekday evening Masses are celebrated here from 5:10 - 5:40 p.m. It is a place of quiet prayer in the midst of the hubbub of the city.

In the middle of the city. Some of us looking for a place for a short time break specially like I did, long distance driving. I never forgot that this is the best place to go. 🙏😊

Old St Stephens Church is the oldest surviving church building in Brisbane. This beautiful little chapel is made of locally quarried sandstone. It was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992. A striking wooden statue made of outback timbers at the front of the small church is of Mary MacKillop an Australian nun who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church.

I feel strange giving a church a 5 star rating, but I was 12 years old when I first went to St. Stephens and excuse the pun but it was a religeous experience for me as I was really moved by the church in the middle of the city as I never expected to see one there and it's such a pretty church. I am not a religeous person so this is a little hard for me to put into words. The second time I went there was in 1971 and I was a telegram boy and worked just over the road, we used to take shortcuts through there all the time and one day I had a telegram to deliver there and I decided to go inside for a quick peek and I stayed about 20 minutes - I got an official reprimand and this happened to me on 5 occasions in 4 months. I sometimes went there at lunchtime and before I started work, but I lost track of time and got written for it everytime - I often called in for 5 minutes and was lucky to go back there for 2 more weddings a 1 Easter and Christmas day services in tge 20 months that I worked in the city. I am 64 years old now and bedridden in a nursing home, but 3 years ago when my health started to fail an Anglicare care worker and I were having a philosophical chat and this lead to her giving me a bible which during 18 months in the hospital I have read it 3 times and some chapters 5 or 6 times, it doesn't always make sense to me, but I went from reading it just to please her to reading it to get spiritual comfort for myself. I don't belong to any particular "brand" of religion, but I do have a connection with St. Stephens and I consideer it to be my church. I Was never fortunate enough to get married, but if I had I would have liked to have have had the ceremony there as well as the christening of any children that we might have had. My late father once said that we belonged to the Church of the Cursed Punter, but my faith, such as it is can be traced back to that day when I attended that wedding as an 11 year old boy. Sorry about my ramblings, but I am getting more and more nostalgic everyday and I just downloaded a picture of the church on my phone at 3.15am this morning and my big fat fingers and blurred vision have not made this easy for me. I hope that I haven't offened anyone and I will continue to make visits the as often as my mind allows me to do it. Thank you Trevor Grimley.