Before you is the Bermuda Cathedral!

Within any parish, the local church is often the oldest building and is larger than any pre-19th-century structure except perhaps a barn. The church is often built of the most durable material available, often dressed stone or brick. The requirements of liturgy have generally demanded that the church should extend beyond a single meeting room to two main spaces, one for the congregation and one in which the priest performs the rituals of the Mass.
 

To clarify: a cathedral is any church that is the “seat” of a bishop. There is one cathedral per diocese. A basilica is any church named highly important by the pope based on its historical or cultural importance, its art or beauty, its significance in the liturgical life of the Church or a variety of these attributes. Basilica is the highest permanent designation for a church building, and once a church is named a basilica, it cannot lose its basilica status.

The Bermuda cathedral was constructed between 1886 and 1905, originally to serve, like its predecessor, as a chapel of ease for the Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda. It became a cathedral when the Bishop of Bermuda was established as separate from the Bishop of Newfoundland in 1919. The structure is primarily Bermuda limestone, with the exception of several decorative features made from carved Caen stone that were brought in from France.

Limestone is one of the most durable options out of all building materials. It’s strong and dense, and contains few pores. Less pores make it harder for the stone to break, and allow it to withstand abrasion and freeze-thaw. It’s also weather resistant, making it the perfect option no matter the climate you’re in. While limestone may naturally corrode over time, it will only do so on a superficial level, not affecting the structural strength. Your limestone is likely to last for generations!

Bermuda Limestone, as its name suggests, is the particular type of limestone you see in the walls of the all over Bermuda. This type of limestone was formed millions of years ago as the Bermudian islands themselves were created. Two distinct deposits of this material exist in Bermuda, and it has been quarried and used in Bermudian construction and as an important export commodity since at least the late 17th century.

The predominance of stone as a building material came about early in Bermuda's history. The first settlers built using the native and abundant Bermuda cedar, but such structures were rarely able to withstand either the normal winds or the occasional hurricane. Furthermore, the Somers Isles Company intended to exploit the value of cedar wood, particularly for shipbuilding, and soon passed laws that forbade the felling and use of that wood without express permission. The only material left for settlers to use was Bermuda's limestone foundation (often called "coral" for its origin), with the stone being cut into square bricks – typically about 2 feet (610 mm) by 10 inches (250 mm).

This method of using large stone blocks proved expensive, with one 1890 estimate being that a Bermuda house cost three times more than it should. The main cause of this expense was high labour costs, though the rarity of building-quality limestone also contributed

Prior to its commoditized use as a building material or export product, Bermuda limestone traveled to Jamestown as ballast, likely in the hulls of the ships, the Deliverance and the Patience, the two ships reconstructed on Bermuda by the survivors of the Sea Venture shipwreck.

Bermuda’s limestone formations all started out the same – as deposits of loose, mostly wind-blown, carbonate sand. Over time, the ageing process, known as diagenesis, altered their chemical and physical characteristics. The youngest formations, having undergone the least amount of alteration, resemble weakly consolidated beach sand. While in the oldest formations the corroded remnants of sand grains are difficult to distinguish and are fused together by cement.

The principal agent of diagenetic change that has acted on Bermuda’s limestones is rain water. As it penetrates, or percolates, through the surface-soil this water becomes weakly acidic. Carbonate sand grains comprising the skeletal remains of marine organisms composed of unstable of High-Mg (Magnesium) calcite and Aragonite are altered or dissolved. The calcium carbonate is then re-deposited, or precipitated, in the pores of the limestone as stable Low-Mg calcite cement.

On Bermuda, the youngest and therefore least altered and least cemented limestones belong to the Southampton Formation. Older limestones of the Rocky Bay and Belmont Formations are better cemented but still retain a primary granular texture, similar to beach sand (Figure 5b). Increasingly, in the Upper and Lower members of the Town Hill Formation and then the Walsingham Fomation, the grains become corroded and more tightly cemented.

Bermuda limestone is a valuable natural resource – principally as a source of building materials but also as an aquifer within which fresh ground water has accumulated. Because of a significant variation in the physical characteristics of limestone across Bermuda, as represented by the Geological Map (Figure 5a), there is an associated geographical variation in its value as a resource of one kind or another. This is a function of the amount of calcite cement that bonds the carbonate sand grains together and which is key to the limestone’s compressive strength and porosity. The youngest formation – the Southampton – being weakly cemented is a good source of sand for building purposes. While the Rocky Bay and Belmont Formations are extensively quarried for building stone, it is the older Town Hill Formation which is preferred by masons owing to its cohesiveness.  The oldest formation – the Walsingham – has historically been the source of Bermuda’s most durable building stone, as attested to by the well-preserved state of many old military buildings and forts. Its density has however been a deterrent to exploitation of its full potential.  The laborious process of cutting the Walsingham limestone into block has been eschewed in favor of crushing it into aggregate for road surfacing and for concrete production.

However the Bermuda Cathedral draws upon the limestone of Bermuda and the Caen Stone from France. Notice the extensive use of Caen Stone in the main doorways and windows of the cathedral.

Caen stone (French: Pierre de Caen) is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about 167 million years ago. The stone is homogeneous, and therefore suitable for carving.

The stone was first used for building in the Gallo-Roman period with production from open cast quarries restarting in the 11th century. Shipped to England, Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London were all partially built from Caen stone. Underground mining developed in the 19th century, but the stone trade declined in the 20th century eventually ceasing in the 1960s. Excavation restarted in the 1980s with the stone being used for building the Caen Memorial. A 2004 decree by Caen city council authorized the annual quarrying of 9000 tons of stone.

So the use of those Caen stone meant that the local limestone was built around these “keep up with the Jones” French stone pieces.

Famous Limestone Buildings around the Globe

Some of the world’s best-known and most-beloved structures were constructed from limestone. It was commonly used as an alternative to marble and granite in municipal buildings, bridges, colleges, and churches. The stone’s hardy nature has allowed many of these buildings to last for centuries.

Notable buildings made of limestone include:

• The Great Sphinx
• The Great Pyramid
• The Parthenon
• The Roman Colosseum
• The Empire State Building
• The Arc de Triomphe in Paris
• The Lincoln Memorial
• The Washington National Cathedral
• The Pentagon
• United States Holocaust Memorial
• The Biltmore Estate
• Chicago Art Museum
• Courthouses and Capitol buildings across the country

To log this earth cache, message or email us and copy and paste these questions, along with your answers. Please do not post the answers in your log, even if encrypted. There's no need to wait for confirmation from us before you log, but we will email you back if you include your email address in the message. Group answers are fine; just let us know who was with you.
 

1. The name of this earth cache: Upon this rock…. ABEC#5

2. Observe: Describe color of the limestone you see in the doorways and windows and the Bermuda Limestone. What, if any, evidence do you see of erosion from the water or other elements? Which limestone can resist weather better or is more aesthetic?

3: Opinion, Based on your answer above and the lesson content. Which would you prefer to use if building with limestone today?

4. Send a photo of the Door, window or wall section you find most affected by the passage of time and erosion. (only in the answer section) You can elect to be in the photo or not.

Please remember it is an active place of worship so be respectful.
 

In the Log area

Send a picture of  your favorite part of the Cathedral. You are not required but you may be in the photos also to log this cache.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_the_Most_Holy_Trinity,_Bermuda

https://www.limestone.com/about-us/limestone-learning-center/limestone-good-building-material/#:~:text=It's%20strong%20and%20dense%2C%20and,the%20climate%20you're%20in.

https://historicjamestowne.org/collections/artifacts/bermuda-limestone/

https://bermudageology.com/formations-of-bermuda/#:~:text=This%20limestone%20is%20by%20far,crushed%20for%20use%20as%20aggregate.

Congrats to Davtec and Davetecsgirl for the FTF!

Making it 3 of 3 this weekend!