Cathedral of the Holy Spirit

The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit on Cumhuriyet Avenue in Istanbul's Harbiye quarter is the bishop's church of the Apostolic Vicariate of Istanbul, the principal church of Latin Catholics in the former Ottoman capital. It was built in 1846 under the patronage of Sultan Abdulmecid, who had granted Christian communities expanded rights through the Tanzimat reforms. Gaspare Fossati, the architect who shortly afterwards restored Hagia Sophia, designed the plain classicist building with tall colonnaded porches and two bell towers. After St Anthony of Padua it is the second largest Roman Catholic church in the city. Pope Benedict XV had a statue erected in front of the church in 1919, which still stands in the small forecourt.