St Gerard's Church and Monastery

St Gerard's Church and Monastery
St Gerard's Church and Monastery in 2008
General information
Architectural styleGothic revival
Town or city73–75 Hawker Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington
CountryNew Zealand
Coordinates41°17′31″S 174°47′27″E / 41.291962°S 174.790784°E / -41.291962; 174.790784
Construction startedChurch: 1908
Monastery: 1931
Design and construction
Architect(s)Church: John Sydney Swan
Monastery: Frederick de Jersey Clere
Designated5 April 1984
Reference no.226 and 227

St Gerard's Church and Monastery collectively form one of Wellington's most distinctive and iconic landmarks. Located on Mount Victoria in Wellington, both buildings are classified as Category 1 Historic Places (places of "special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value") by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. They are built on the site of a sixteen-roomed house (called Fitzgerald's Folly) and property owned by James Edward Fitzgerald who some claim to be New Zealand's first Prime Minister. In April 2021, the owners of the buildings, the International Catholic Programme of Evangelisation (ICPE), announced that the church would close at the end of the following month due to safety concerns. The buildings were sold to on 27 March 2023. The purchaser was a recently formed company, St Gerard's Limited.