Day Forty-Three - 23/10/2012 - Cork

     While walking along North Main Street today, the gates of St. Peter's Cathedral were open.  This was a spectacular occurrence  as this was the first time I had seen them opened, despite walking past them almost every day.  Figuring that this may not happen again, I decided to investigate.  The cathedral itself is fairly standard from the outside, the bell tower sandwiched between two adjacent buildings.  The building itself, has been completely retrofitted inside, and no longer functions as a place of worship.  It is now a visual arts museum, called the Cork Vision Centre.  Donations to the exhibit go towards refurbishing the church, which has largely been restored by the Vision Centre.

     Upon walking into the exhibition, a huge scale model of Cork occupies the first floor.  The model is made mostly from paper bits, showing the buildings and topography of the River Lee and the old city of Cork, the "island" lying between the two tributaries of the Lee.  The model is complete with miniature trees and reliefs of the buildings found in Cork today.  I immediately located my residence and remarked at how close some of the things I had been hoping to see really are.  Cork is not a very large city, a fact made even more obvious when presented with a model of it.  UCC was outlined in the map as well, even marked as one of the points of interest, of which the exhibition had several.

     On the second level of the small showroom, there was a collection of historical photographs of Cork.  One shot showed the North Mall as it appeared in 1960.  A now absent bridge, pictured east of St. Vincent's Bridge, lays in front of the facade that has not changed much till today.  I could easily make out and recognize the same buildings and trees there today.  Other photographs showed the visit of President John F. Kennedy, and various sports celebrities.

     Although small, it was a nice little exhibit, and I was quite impressed with the model of Cork City.  Just before exiting the building, I saw a small section that had the original stone flooring and headed in. There was a figure of St. Peter carved into the wall, part of the original cathedral.