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Saint Mary's Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral located on Bo Aung Kyaw Street in Botahtaung Township, Yangon. The cathedral's exterior, of red brick, consists of spires and a bell tower. It was designed by Dutch architect Jos Cuypers, son of Pierre Cuypers.

Saint Mary's Cathedral is the largest in Burma. Located on the grounds of the cathedral is Basic Education High School No. 6, which is locally known as "Saint Paul's High School", although it has no religious affiliation to the Catholic Church today.

Construction began in 1895 and was completed 19 November 1899 under a land grant from the Government of India, whilst Lower Burma was a province of British India.

During the 1930 Rangoon earthquake, St. Mary's Cathedral suffered little damage and it withstood the Japanese invasion during World War II. However, the cathedral's stained glass windows were damaged during the Allied invasion of Rangoon.

The cathedral was dedicated as Our Lady of Immaculate Conception on 22 February 1911.

The earthquake of May 5, 1930 wrought havoc in the city. The cathedral behaved splendidly under the shock it received. Only two interior vaults came down and others showed a few cracks. Two arches next to the towers were badly cracked but in a few months repairs were completed.

The cathedral well withstood the Japanese bombings of 1941–42 but the Allied bombing of 14 December 1944 blew all the stained glasses to smithereens. They were redone with the ordinary local made glasses.

On 2 May 2008, again the cathedral glasses were strongly hit and damaged by the Nargis cyclone. This time, tarpaulin sheets were used to fix the broken glass, but that does not match the beauty and dignity of the Cathedral. It would cost a fortune to have them replaced

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Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanu www.slideshare.net/michaelasanda

Sound Josipa Lisac - Ave Maria