William Lloyd Wright, an English engineer, built the temple for Saint Paul´s Cathedral, which covers a surface of 503 square meters, in the year 1858. His experience building railway bridges in our country (he was asked by the Chilean Government to build the railway between Valparaíso and Santiago )
led him to design a structurally solid building, which in turn allowed the building to resist very well the 1906 earthquake in Chile, without major damages. Legislation of those days which established Catholicism as the official religion for Chile, to the exclusion of any other, led to the design of small windows, the absence of a spire, cross, bell tower and principal door, as the building had to merge with the surroundings and seem like just one more big house in Cerro Concepción.
It has one nave, and the beams that support the roof are made with laminated Oregon pine joined with nails and screws so as to form arches and structural curves, corresponding to the gothic style, and together with the arches that form the windows, they impose the ogival shape.
It has an area for the choir, chancel and the baptistery, this last at the west end of the church. The altar is situated on high and behind it, the easterly morning sun shines through the stained glass window divided into three sections, depicting the life of Saint Paul, patron saint to the church. On the side, you may read the Ten Commandments.
A rood screen (separation typically made of wood, though it could be metal, an idea originally from the 14 th to 15 th century) separates the Nave from the Chancel and the Choir. There is a finely carved pulpit on the left and on the right a massive bronze lectern from which the Bible lessons are read. On the walls, there are bronze plaques in memory of different parishioners.
At the back of the Church, there are two metal plaques in memoriam of the members of the British Community that lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. There is another memorial thanking the Lord Almighty for protection during the great earthquake of 1906 that devastated Valparaíso.
