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Walkthrough

Duration: 3:31

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a labyrinth is an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit.

a maze of paths bordered by high hedges, as in a park or garden, for the amusement of those who search for a way out.
a complicated or tortuous arrangement, as of streets or buildings.
any confusingly intricate state of things or events; a bewildering complex:
His papers were lost in an hellish bureaucratic labyrinth.
After the death of her daughter, she wandered in a labyrinth of sorrow for what seemed like a decade.
(initial capital letter)Classical Mythology. a vast maze built in Crete by Daedalus, at the command of King Minos, to house the Minotaur.
Anatomy.
the internal ear, consisting of a bony portion (bony labyrinth ) and a membranous portion (membranous labyrinth ).
the aggregate of air chambers in the ethmoid bone, between the eye and the upper part of the nose.
The cathedral's style is Gothic Revival, Burges' preferred period which he used for his own home, The Tower House, in London. He reused elements of the unsuccessful designs he had earlier produced for competitions for cathedrals at Lille and Brisbane.The shell of the building is mostly limestone, sourced from near Cork, with the interior walls formed from stone brought from Bath. The red marble came from Little Island, the purple-brown stone from Fermoy.

Each of the three spires supports a Celtic cross, a reference to Saint Patrick, seen as a foundational ancestor by both Irish Catholics and Protestants. This inclusion was an implicit statement of national identity, but was against Burges' wishes. His initial design included weather vanes, a choice rejected by the building committee, who, according to the historian Antóin O'Callaghan, wanted the church to "retain the continuity with the one true faith of the ancient past".

The north western tower hosts a ring of twelve bells, as well as an additional sharp second bell, which forms part of a diatonic ring of eight bells, for a total of thirteen bells.Originally, eight bells were hung on a wooden frame in the tower in either 1752 or 1753, which were cast by Abel Rudman of Gloucester.The bells were taken down in 1865 in advance of the demolition of the original cathedral. They were reinstated at some point before the consecration of the new cathedral in 1870. At this point, however, the towers and spires had not been constructed above the level of the nave, and consequently the bells were hung lower than is appropriate, which meant that they could not be rung properly. In 1902, an appeal was launched in an attempt to raise £500 to properly fit the bells, and the following year they were hung from a steel frame higher in the cathedral.Due to corrosion of the frame in 2007, the frame was replaced, which created an opportunity to expand on the collection of bells: in 2008 four trebles were added, along with the additional second bell.Between their initial installation and today, many of the bells have been recast, and all were restored in 2008.

The spires had a troubled construction: it was a difficult build from a technical point of view and thus expensive to fund. The cost reached £40,000 early in the build, with a further £60,000 spent by the time the spires were in place. Along the way, a number of sub-contractors were hired and dismissed; the contract was eventually completed by the Cork builder John Delaney, hired in May 1876. By the end of the following year the main and two ancillary spires were complete.

Robed figure of a standing winged angel with two straight trumpets, gazing down
Burges' copper-gilt "Resurrection Angel", placed over the sanctuary roof
An 1881 estimate by the local stonemason McLeod suggests that Burges provided around 844 sculptures, of which around 412 were for the interior. The total of some 1,260 sculptures include 32 gargoyles, each with different animal heads. Burges oversaw nearly all aspects of the design, headquartered in his office in Buckingham Street and on numerous site visits. Most modern scholars agree that his overarching control over the design of the architecture, statuary, stained glass and internal decorations, led to the cathedral's unity of style.He considered sculpture as an "indispensable attribute of architectural effect" and, at Saint Fin Barre's, believed he was engaged upon "a work which has not been attempted since the West front of Wells Cathedral".In the designs for the pieces decorating the cathedral, Burges worked closely with Thomas Nicholls, who constructed each figure in plaster,and with McLeod and local stonemasons, who carved almost all of the sculptures in situ.

Burges' designs for the western façade were based on medieval French iconography. He considered this front to be the most important exterior feature as it would be lit by the setting sun and thus the most dramatic.